what is ambrosia in america

Ambrosia is an American variety of fruit salad originating in the Southern United States. Most ambrosia recipes contain canned (often sweetened) or fresh pineapple, canned mandarin orange slices or fresh orange sections, miniature marshmallows, and coconut.

The Makings of a Christmas Tradition

What started off as a simple three-ingredient dish soon took on new variations. In the 1880s, recipes started popping up that included sliced pineapple along with the oranges. A few add the instruction “serve with whipped cream,” and others call for adding a little sherry or Madeira to the layers of fruit. By the early 1900s, many had expanded the dish into more of a fruit salad. In her Original Buckeye Cookbook (1905), for instance, Estelle Wilcoxs ambrosia includes oranges, bananas, pineapple, strawberries, along with grated coconut and some orange and lemon juice poured over the top.

Most cooks, though, still used the the basic preparation of orange, coconut, and sugar, and in the early 20th century that combination became closely associated with Christmas in the South. That it would makes sense: at the time, ambrosia was a pretty fancy dish, the kind of luxurious treat that would be an obvious pick for a family celebration. Florida orange season began in the late fall, so in December fresh oranges would have just become available in the markets.

“Cooks in the Northeast and Midwest continued to make and serve ambrosia, but it was only in the South that it became a standard item on the holiday menu.”

What isnt as obvious is why ambrosia and Christmas became so tightly linked in the South but not in other parts of the country. The ingredients were available nationally, and the recipe was widely published in cookbooks, newspapers, and magazines across the country. Cooks in the Northeast and Midwest continued to make and serve ambrosia, but it was only in the South that it became a standard item on the holiday menu.

In December 1922, the “Society Events of the Week” page of the in Columbia State newspaper recorded three separate holiday dinners in South Carolina at which ambrosia was served. Mr. and Mrs. Jack Self of Florence hosted a three-course Christmas dinner for friends, “beginning with a cocktail and ending with ambrosia, coffee, and whipped cream.” Mr. and Mrs. M. C. Woods of Marion hosted a holiday party for “the college set” at which “ambrosia and cake were served at a late hour.” In Bamberg, the Apollo Music Club was entertained by a “tacky party” where the guests dressed in “ridiculous costumes” and the refreshments included “ambrosia and cake.”

In 1931, the Evening Star of Washington, D.C. ran an article datelined Atlanta describing the holiday preparations in Georgia, where residents were planning to celebrate “in that all-Southern way with feasts, fasts, reunions and gifts.” In the countryside, that meant “freshly killed pork and stacks of hot biscuits loaded on a plate like cord wood and topped off with pies and boiled custard make a favorite meal…The city folk will have their bought turkey and ambrosia.”

Three years later in the same newspaper, Lucy Eberly provided a recipe for ambrosia, which she insisted must be made with fresh coconut and noted, “Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner would never seem quite complete without it.”

In the 1930s, more and more accounts appear that refer to ambrosia as a traditional Southern holiday dish, and the timing of their memories suggests that it was around the turn of the 20th century that this association began.

In 1934, Mrs. S. R. Dull included ambrosia in her syndicated column on recipes for “old Southern favorites” and noted that in decades past “the weekend before Christmas brought busy days…The holidays brought lots of visitors, both young and old, and the hostess always served refreshments—mostly cake, of every kind and flavor, accompanied by something else good, such as syllabub, ambrosia, Spanish cream, and other good things.”

That same year in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Mrs. S. Y. Allen remembered “A Christmas of Forty Years” ago and provided a menu for the dinner, which featured ham, roast turkey, and oyster dressing, with ambrosia, pound cake, and coffee for dessert. In providing her familys ambrosia recipe to the Portland Oregonian in 1939, Mrs. W. L. Owen commented, “Down in Mobile, Alabama, where I lived as a child, we always had Ambrosia for Christmas dinner dessert. It would not have been Christmas without it.”

Oranges & Coconuts: The Original Ambrosia

We cant say for sure, but its possible ambrosia first appeared in the South. The earliest written reference to the dish that Ive been able to find is in an 1867 cookbook entitled Dixie Cookery: or How I Managed My Table for Twelve Years, which was written by Maria Massey Barringer of Concord, North Carolina. Barringers recipe for ambrosia is quite basic: “Grate the white part of the cocoanut [sic], sweeten with a little sugar, and place in a glass bowl, in alternate layers with pulped oranges, having a layer of cocoanut on top. Serve in ice-cream plates or saucers.”

But recipes for ambrosia were published quite widely in the 1870s in syndicated cooking and household columns that appeared in newspapers from Holton, Kansas, to Newport, Rhode Island, and none of them make any reference to the dish having Southern origins or being particularly popular in the South. Almost all of these early recipes call for the same basic combination of sliced oranges, grated coconut, and sugar layered in a glass bowl or dish. These recipes appear all throughout the year and do not seem to have a particular linkage to Christmas or any other holidays.

“The appearance and rapid proliferation of the dish seems driven by the sudden availability of its “exotic” base ingredients.”

The appearance and rapid proliferation of the dish seems driven by the sudden availability of its “exotic” base ingredients. Oranges and other citrus fruits had been grown in South Carolina and Georgia since the Colonial era, but a series of harsh freezes in the 1830s moved citrus growing permanently southward to Florida. Orange production increased sharply after the Civil War, rising from one million boxes per year in the late 1860s to five million per year in 1893. At the same time, new railroad networks linked Florida to markets to the north, making oranges more widely available and less expensive.

Coconuts became more available around the same time, thanks to the newly completed railroads linking the West Coast with the east. “With each year,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 1876, “the demand for the cocoanut [sic] increases.” Small ships arrived regularly in the San Francisco harbor from Tahiti, Hawaii, and South America, their holds filled with coconuts, which were either shipped whole to the Eastern states or processed by one of the several small factories in the city that grated and canned the meat “for household and confection purposes.”

For 19th century diners, a bowl of ambrosia presented luxurious and somewhat exotic flavors. Though we dont know who had the original idea, its easy to see how someone decided to label it with the name of the food of the gods.

Vintage American Ambrosia Salad | Schnucks

FAQ

Why is it called ambrosia salad in USA?

What kind of fruit is an ambrosia?

What is ambrosia also known as?

What country does ambrosia come from?

Why is Ambrosia so popular?

As fresh citrus fruit became easier to obtain year-round and nationwide, ambrosia also gained popularity across the US. It is especially popular as a fresh dessert alternative during the holidays. Ambrosia is typically made up of citrus fruits, such as orange slices.

Where does Ambrosia come from?

Today, as most food historians agree, ambrosia belongs to the South. When it is mentioned, many think of the holiday table and a serving dish filled to the brim with a fluffy, fruit-studded concoction rather than visions of eternal life. Or they go even further back in time to a crystal bowl containing a vivid, sweet mélange of oranges and coconut.

What was a ‘baked Ambrosia’?

The Dallas Morning News offered a “baked ambrosia” in 1960 that called for a can of fruit cocktail, bananas, miniature marshmallows, canned crushed pineapple, and grated coconut to be mixed in a pan and baked in a 350 degree oven until the coconut was browned.

What is Ambrosia made of?

Ambrosia is typically made up of citrus fruits, such as orange slices. At its simplest, ambrosia is a citrus fruit salad, made with sugar and sprinkled with coconut. There are as many recipes for the dish as there are cooks who prepare it, and no two recipes are quite the same.