Candle salad

Candle Salad is a nostalgic fruit dish that was immensely popular in America from the 1920s to the 1960s. This whimsical salad consists of lettuce, pineapple, banana, cherry, and either mayonnaise or cottage cheese, with whipped cream as an optional garnish. To prepare it, you simply arrange some lettuce leaves, stack pineapple rings on top, place a peeled banana in the center, and finish it off with a dab of cream and a cherry.

The earliest recorded mention of Candle Salad dates back to 1916, and it frequently appeared in cookbooks and newspapers throughout the 1920s. It became a fun and creative way to encourage children to eat more fruit, thanks to its playful presentation and simple assembly. Recipes for Candle Salad were included in children's cookbooks like "A Child's First Cook Book" and "Betty Crocker's Cook Book for Boys and Girls."

In 2008, a modern twist on Candle Salad appeared in a Mormon children's magazine, using alfalfa sprouts and strawberry yogurt to mimic candle wax. In 1958, the Tested Recipes Institute of New York also published a recipe card for it. Carolyn Andrew Lynch explored the salad's history in her booklet "The Candle Salad Story" noting its ties to the promotion of the banana industry.

The salad experienced a resurgence when comedian Amy Sedaris demonstrated how to make it on Bravo TV's "Watch What Happens Live." Ellen DeGeneres even cracked a joke about it in 2014, which helped turn Candle Salad into a popular Internet meme.