Record!
Today marks the 60th year of Aunt Margaret’s carrot jelly making an appearance at Christmas lunch and the 60th year that no one has eaten it.
Margaret clipped the recipe for ‘Sunshine Salad’ from the Women’s Weekly in 1961 and it’s been her signature dish ever since. It wasn’t popular then and it isn’t popular now.
Margaret is persistent, arriving with the familiar jelly-mould-shaped delicacy year after year. The recipe makes use of tinned pineapple, jelly and grated carrot. Sometimes Margaret adds cucumber, cabbage, or if she’s had a prosperous year, nuts.
Margaret’s niece Kathleen is hosting Christmas this year. Her pleas to Margaret to ‘just bring herself’ have been ignored.
Kathleen told Babbler, “I never know when to serve it. Does it go with the turkey? Or is it dessert? I usually put it out with each course and still, no one eats it. Do you want to take some home with you?”
Kathleen then turns serious, “At first, the kids think it’s fun, but when they realise it’s not proper jelly they freak out. Last year little Theo was in tears. Have you ever seen a pistachio wobbling in jelly? Truly terrifying.”
