Have you ever gone to a party and thought, “Gosh, this salad just doesn’t seem festively fishy enough”?
Nothing says “party time” like mayonnaise and gelatin.
- 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 2 cans (7 3/4 oz each) salmon, cleaned, drained and flaked
- 3/4 cup chopped celery
- 1/2 cup BEST FOODS Real Mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 2 Tbsp. chopped capers
- 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 tsp. grated lemon peel
- 1 tsp. grated onion
- 1 tsp. celery seed
- 1 baked (9-inch) pastry shell
- Sprinkle gelatin over water; heat, stirring until dissolved.
- Chill until slightly thickened.
- Combine with next 9 ingredients.
- Turn into pastry shell. Chill until set. Serves 6 to 8.
I’ll note here that our choice was between salmon pie and a shrimp mold… and I just wasn’t in the mood for shrimp.
A typical salmon salad — one that includes capers and plenty of mayo, for example — can be pretty tasty.
Of course, dumping partially solidified gelatin on top isn’t a standard salmon salad ingredient in my experience.
It makes the stuff really runny. So it’s super easy to pour into a pie crust.
Which, incidentally, is another non-standard ingredient.
We fed the kids hot dogs — it’s one of those recipes I knew they wouldn’t bother trying — and put it in the fridge to solidify. Since the gelatin was already partially set, it only took about 45 minutes to be gelled enough to be tilted without pouring.
And then, of course, Buzz got to try the first bite. (Sometimes it pays to be the chef, not the taster…)
Initially it was pretty positive — “Hey, this isn’t too bad.”
And then halfway through chewing, it got bad. “Ohhhhh wow no.”
Verdict: Bleah. Not a good way to serve salmon.
Tasting notes:
Our pre-baked pie crust was very slightly sweet, which made the overall flavor even stranger. Tasting just the salmon salad filling wasn’t too bad. However, a no-sugar crust probably wouldn’t save this — the filling was surprisingly bland. Don’t waste your gelatin.
I confess I like canned salmon, and once made a pasta salad with most of those ingredients. I cleaned the salmon bits as best I could. It was just delicious, though it looked ghastly! … What made this gelatinized pie so bad, other than the crust? Why did it get bad halfway through?
Without the gelatin and crust, I’d slap that stuff between nice gummy white bread and think it made a dandy lunch. Maybe without the capers (which I always think is an awfully expensive way to put salt in a recipe).
Honestly, it’s hard to say what it was that turned the flavor so bad. The fish and vegetable flavors of the first bite were fine for a while; then something else just entered the mix, and the whole combination tasted wrong. It wasn’t just the sweet pie crust, since I tried the filling without the crust, and it was still not right.
Most of the ingredients in this would probably make a nice sandwich filling. I really like capers—especially with fish—but for whatever reason, they did not add much to this recipe.
Yeah, those pre-made pie crusts are always death to savory fillings. On the other hand, I hate salmon with a passion, so I wouldn’t have liked this no matter the pie crust!