Why Do Southerners Put Mayo In Fruit Salad?

When we asked celeb chef and Southerner Kardea Brown why folks below the Mason-Dixon line like to put mayonnaise in their fruit salads, she was admittedly a little stumped. "I don't know; it's like one of those old school things," she said, speaking with Foodie's parent company Static Media at the Nassau Paradise Island Wine & Food Festival. Brown mentioned owning a cookbook called "Charleston Recipes," which she said contained "several recipes with fruit and mayo, Miracle Whip, or sour cream and Cool Whip." It's hardly a one-off quirk either, as a few mayo-infused fruit salads have passed into the American epicurean canon, like ambrosia and Waldorf fruit salads.

If you are looking askance at the idea of putting a mayo-spiked fruit salad on your holiday table, you are probably not a Southerner. These are the same folks who have a long history of insisting that white bread be served alongside barbecue, and tradition is often spelled with a capital "T" 'round those parts. It's altogether possible that Southern cooks keep putting mayo in fruit salad because that's the way things have always been done. That said, one explanation for why their fore-elders started putting mayo in fruit salads in the first place is because the condiment is rich, creamy, and adds a pleasant counterpoint to the sweetness of the fruit. But if you really, really don't want to use mayonnaise, Brown told us that there's an easy substitute for this condiment in fruit salad: sour cream.

Kardea Brown said that she actually shies away from mayo in fruit salads, opting for sour cream every time. "It gives you that creaminess, it gives you that tang without being offensive," she explained. Of course, she also likes a little bit extra to jazz up her salads. "I add cream cheese, sour cream, the Cool Whip or hand-whipped cream," she said, adding, "I also like to add a little bit of the pineapple juice in there as well." Using sour cream with or without any of the sweet, creamy ingredients that Brown uses in her fruit salads will guarantee that you have the delectable consistency of a mayo-based salad, but one that is lighter and without any potentially undesirable umami aspects.

Of course, opened sour cream only lasts for perhaps a couple of weeks in the fridge, unlike that container of mayo with a more trusty shelf life. That just means that you have to eat plenty of creamy fruit salad. Brown's own ambrosia recipe calls for pineapple tidbits, mandarin orange segments, and maraschino cherries, but why stop there? We can envision a retro Southern pear salad with sour cream, or a kitschy and playful candle salad drizzled in Cool Whip. Bring those old mid-century fruit salads into the modern day with creamy dressings that don't rely on a jar of Hellmann's.