I Make Coke Salad

So, a few days back Janice asked if there were any desert we hadn't had in a long time that I'd been hankering for. I suggested either oatmeal cookies or coke salad -- at which she opted out, saying that if I wanted coke salad (a dish of which she is not fond) I'd have to make it myself. 

For those of you who've never had it, coke salad is not a salad in the lettuce and dressing sense but a jello desert with fruit mixed in. And, of course, coca-cola. I suspect it's a Southern thing.

I haven't made it in a long time, partly because it's inimical to a low-carb diet. I do still have the recipe but in the fashion of old recipes it has a list of ingredients but little more. So I called up my mother, who remembered some of the details, and my sister, who remembered the most between the three of us. Janice got me the ingredients and night before last I gave it a go, and by yesterday I had coke salad.

For those of you who might want to give it a try, here's how it goes:

Dissolve two packets of Black Cherry Jello in hot water, as per directions on the box. But instead of cold water, you next add Coke. This recipe dates back before the time of 'New Coke', which might explain why it tasted off the last few times I made it, back when New Coke was a new thing. 

So we used two bottles of Mexican Coke, the kind with cane sugar rather than corn syrup.*

Then add in all the rest of the ingredients: a small can of crushed pineapple (sans juice), a cup of pecans, a jar of maraschino cherries (also sans juice). Pour into a large flat Pyrex dish. Sprinkle mini marshmellows on top. Chill overnight (or a few hours, if you're impatient). Enjoy. 

Be warned: Makes a lot. Especially if you're the only member of the household who eats it.

  --John R

*The people in my family who drank Coke (that is, everyone but me) favored the small glass bottles, so we got smaller rather than larger bottles.