Perfection Salad For 50

I’ve just the salad to go with your Monster Meat Loaf, Erma. It’s another of Mel’s Feed A Ship sized recipes. This is actually one of his smaller recipes. I guess sailors didn’t eat as much salad as they did desserts, or bean soup, as this one only makes 50 servings.

Perfection Salad For 50:

18 ounces of lemon Jell-O
2 3/4 quarts of boiling water
1/2 cup sweet pickle juice
3 large sweet pickles
1 bunch of celery
2 green peppers
2 heads of cabbage

Dissolve the lemon Jell-O in water and add pickle juice. Chill until it begins to set up. Chop pickles, celery, peppers, and cabbage in heavy duty food processor. Stir into lemon Jell-O and chill until firm. Cut in squares.

If you’re not up to serving 50 guests, here is a much better recipe that serves 6. It is an old Mennonite recipe from the 1930’s, but still is good. Perfection Salad originally was more of a winter dish because it featured cabbage which was always available in the winter while lettuce often disappeared off the store shelves. Today, Perfection Salad is better in the summer, or at least I think so. It’s such a nice change from the daily tossed lettuce salads

Mennonite Perfection Salad and Dressing:

2 tablespoons plain gelatin, like Knox’s
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup sugar
Scant teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups diced celery
1 1/2 cups shredded cabbage
3 chopped pimientos (or you can use a red or green pepper)

Soak gelatin in cold water, then add hot water, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and sugar. Chill. When thickened, stir in all the vegetables and chill until firm in a 13 inch casserole, or a fancy, mold like the KitchenAid Silicone Fluted Cake Pan. Top each serving with:

Dressing:

2/3 cup condensed milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon dry mustard
Pinch salt

Using a whisk and a large mixing bowl, whip up until thick. Makes about a cup and a half. Store in a 2-cup Pyrex storage container. The extra keeps nicely for several days and is good on other salads as well.