I had always assumed that the Fruit Cocktail recipe was a family recipe that Mom inherited from her mother like so many of her other treats. I found out only recently that it is a recipe Mom encountered herself and developed over the years. During the 1960s, my Mom was a member of the General Board for the Young Women's organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was invited to a luncheon at the home of the General Young Women's President, Florence Jacobsen. Florence served a fruit cocktail at the luncheon, and my Mom liked it so much she tried it out at home. Dad loved it and requested that she make it again. Mom adapted the recipe for us kids, cutting the grapefruit into smaller chunks and making it a bit sweeter than the original version, and perhaps making other changes as well. She's been making it so long that it's hard to remember what parts of the recipe are hers and what parts are from Florence.
Below is my Mom's recipe for Holiday Fruit Cocktail. It's been a part of our family holiday tradition for over 40 years. No wonder I thought it came from Grandma Sarah. I don't remember Christmas Eve dinner at Mom's house without it.
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What foods are must-haves for your Christmas Eve or Christmas Day dinner? If you try out this recipe, what do you think?
Holiday Fruit Cocktail
Serves 8 or 9
Make it least 6 hours before dinner, or a day or two ahead.
What you need:
1 20oz can of pineapple tidbits
1/3 cup of sugar
3 large or 4 small grapefruits
maraschino cherries
Sprite or 7-Up
What to do:
- Open the can of pineapple, and drain the juice into a microwaveable bowl.
- Microwave the pineapple juice 30 seconds or so, just to warm it slightly.
- Mix 1/3 cup of sugar into the pineapple juice, stirring until all of the sugar is dissolved. Set aside.
- Get out a small square (9 x 9) or small rectangle (2.2 qt) Pyrex baking pan.
- Cut each grapefruit in half and use a grapefruit spoon or small knife to cut the grapefruit out in bite-sized sections. As you remove the grapefruit, put it into the Pyrex pan.
- Squeeze the juice out of each grapefruit into the pineapple juice / sugar mixture. Mix well until the juices are combined.
- Add the pineapple tidbits to the grapefruit in the pan, and distribute the fruit evenly across the bottom of the pan.
- Cut the maraschino cherries in half, and place cherries evenly throughout the mixture. How many cherries you add is up to you.
- Carefully pour the juice over the fruit.
- Cover the pan with plastic wrap or foil and place it on a flat surface in the freezer.
- Freeze for 6 hours or for a day or two.
- Remove frozen fruit mixture from the freezer.
- Use a knife to cut the frozen fruit into even pieces.
- Use a large spoon to scoop the fruit mixture into small serving dishes. Depending on how solid it has frozen, you may need to break it up a bit with the knife or spoon.
- Pour Sprite or 7-Up over the fruit mixture just until it is all covered up.
- Eat with a spoon. Babies like it, but it may be too cold for them so wait until it has melted a bit.
Note about the pineapple:
Do not use fresh pineapple. It goes weird when it is frozen.
If you don't have pineapple tidbits, you can use canned pineapple rings, cut into small bite-sized pieces. Canned pineapple chunks are a bit too big, so if you need to use those instead of tidbits, you'll probably want to cut those into smaller pieces too.
I haven't made this in a while. When I do, I'll add some photos and let you know if there are any changes (like how many maraschino cherries to add).
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