Grape Salad? WTF?

[uppityperson]

Have anyone of you heard of this? Granted I grew up 20 ft from MN, but huh? Lefse, molded jello salad with grated carrots, wild rice salad or hot dish, but this?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2014/11/19/365194058/grape-salad-is-not-minnesotan-and-other-lessons-in-cultural-mapmaking?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social

I was not raised in Minnesota, but I earned my stripes there during 10 winters as a resident, scraping my windshield through a fog of existential despair. Not every portrayal of the Midwest is based in reality, but this still speaks to a profound piece of my soul. I have been this person. I have been Jerry Lundegaard before murder enters his life, but after it enters his heart, if by "murder" you mean "beating the bejeezus out of a car with a plastic scraper."

I have never in my life heard of a "grape salad." Not at Thanksgiving, not at Christmas, not during a Vikings game, not during the Winter Carnival, not during the State Fair, and not during the greatest state holiday: the annual hockey tournament of the Minnesota State High School League.

But today, when The New York Times decided to come up with Thanksgiving recipes that "evoke each of the 50 states," Minnesota got "Grape Salad."

(clip)
Look, I'm not saying nobody in the state has ever eaten a grape salad. It's heated up grapes and sour cream with sugar on it; somebody has eaten that in any state where there are families coming up with simple dishes — in fact, somebody has eaten that in any state where there are mostly empty refrigerators and college students. Somebody has also, at some point, dipped Doritos in peanut butter and washed them down with Yoo-Hoo, in spite of the fact that recreational marijuana use is still illegal by federal law. But that does not mean Dorito Peanut Butter Crunch is a dish, and it definitely does not mean it is a Thanksgiving classic.
...

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/18/dining/thanksgiving-recipes-across-the-united-states.html

This grape salad, which falls into the same category of old-fashioned party dishes as molded Jell-O salad, comes from a Minnesota-born heiress, who tells me it was always part of the holiday buffet in her family. It couldn’t be simpler to prepare and has only three ingredients: grapes, sour cream and brown sugar.

Rather like a creamy fruit salad with a crisp sugar topping, it really is delicious, though the concept sounded strange to me before I first tasted it. Other versions, I hear, call for softened cream cheese and nondairy “whipped topping”; I can’t say I’ll be trying that. Some cooks caramelize the brown sugar under the broiler and some don’t, but I definitely recommend this step, which gives the dish a crème brûlée aura

[elleng]

1. I thought it was weird too but what do I know?

I'm from New York!

[glinda]

2. Epic fail. Never a MN dish of any kind at any time. Lazy researcher.

[kickysnana]

3. I think you are right. Taster here, remembers food.

Never served in my Norwegian, Dutch/Belgian, Swiss-German, Middle Tennessee, NE Quaker or other ancestor-ed families. Never seen in a magazine or mentioned by a neighbor or friend, ethnic or not so it might be THAT families tradition but not Minnesotans.

The closest I had was grapes in Miracle whip with a little sugar or grapes in jello with whipped topping and I would not recommend those either or say they were common.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. Someone needs to be splaining here.

Ufda,first thing,table grapes are only seasonal in Minnesota. Never heard of this concoction. Lutefisk yes,grape salad no. In the food business for more than fifty years in Minny,it's a new one on me. Grapes in lime jello salad yes. Got to call the Ladies Aide at the Church and see if they can help,most of them are even older than me. BTW,notice how hard it is to find a big jar of pickled Herring Cutlets outside of Minnesota. Geez!!!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Never heard of it.

I even went through a couple of those old Lutheran church lady cookbooks and there was nothing even close. I have no idea where it came from. Maybe I'll try it, though.

[NBachers]

6. They should've stuck with tuna casserole with real wide egg noodles and bread crumbs toasted on top.

[Jenoch]

7. Are you a Minnesota native?

It should be tuna noodles hotdish with crushed potato chips on top.

I have never heard of 'grape salad' either, but just for shits and giggles, I think I will serve this at Thanksgiving.

[NBachers]

8. No, I'm from Rochester NY. This is what we ate growing up in the '60's; I figured it would resonate

But yours sounds like a real regional authentic Minnesota dish. Oh, I left out an essential ingredient- the peas mixed in to the casserole mush.

My early visions of Minnesota were forged by the many hours I spent absorbing the Herter's Catalog.

[trotsky]

11. I am, and we never made our hotdishes with crushed potato chips.

Breadcrumbs, yes. Fried onions, yes. Never potato chips!

The grape salad thing I find repulsive. Seems to me a facet of that East Coast elitism which views the vast hinterlands of "flyover country" with disdain. "Stupid hicks, they won't know or care."

[Jenoch]

12. I grew up in rural Minnesota

and both the school caceteria version and my mother's used crushed potato chips.

Apparently the NYT got the proverbial 'earful' in the comments on that story from indignant Minnesotans.

[geardaddy]

14. Yes, potato chips is the correct topping.

[TexasProgresive]

9. I scanned through the list and maybe 10% represent their state

We have tamales as do many Texans at Thanksgiving and Christmas. They are mostly pork sometimes chicken. I suppose you could make tamales from turkey as well but I have never seen any. There is a traditional Mexican Christmas dinner turkey mole which has one of the strangest sauces (mole) ever. Maybe that was the idea behind the turkey tamales. Some like Alabama's oyster dressing would be at home on the whole Gulf coast but probably not served in Birmingham or other northern Alabama regions. The pecan pie would grace southern tables alongside pumpkin, mince and apple.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/18/dining/thanksgiving-recipes-across-the-united-states.html?_r=0

[Brickbat]

10. More NYT bullshit.

[AwakeAtLast]

13. I live in Indiana

One of my colleagues brought it to a pitch-in. It was OK.