Coca Cola Salad--a Jello salad
- 1 can black cherries
- 1 can crushed pineapple
- 1 sm package each of raspberry and black cherry jello (1 lg package of cherry or black cherry can substitute in a pinch)
- 3/4 cup pecans, broken in small pieces
- 1 lg package Philadelphia cream cheese (ok to use lite) chopped into small, peasized bits
- 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cans of coca cola (between 16 and 18 oz--this is NOT an exact measurement because the original recipe called for old 'bottles' without specifying the size. Play around with it.)
Drain juice from canned fruit into a saucepan. Heat it until it boils, turn off the heat, then dissolve the Jello in the hot juice. Stir in the cream cheese until it softens but do not let it melt. Allow to cool to about room temperature.
Add Coca Cola, cherries, pineapple, and nuts to the liquid, pour into a dish or pan, cover, and refrigerate until it congeals.
Makes about 12 servings. Serve on a leaf of lettuce to make it look prettier if you'd like.
This is an family recipe that's been handed down. Although this dish is not uncommon in the south, outside the region it's essentially unknown.
It makes sense, in a way, I suppose, that jello salads became popular in the hotter regions of the country where a cool, refreshing salad or desert would taste so good. This is an unusual recipe in that it does involve the addition of carbonated liquid to it. The coke does not really affect the taste at all, being drowned out by the heavy black cherry syrup, but it makes the dish ligher and almost but not quite fizzy, yielding a delightful texture.
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