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Submitted by A Hathcoat
We couldn’t find a picture of Libby’s Fruit Float out of the can, but we’re guessing it might look a lot like this unholy addition to every family reunion/picnic ever, ambrosia:
Photo via fakeraybans
In a word: “eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew.”
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I seem to remember (I’m pulling this memory from a shoebox tucked deep into a dusty closet that has been locked for decades) this ‘product’ turned milk into a gelatinous type ‘dessert’, kinda like a bastard pudding.
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little……
Ugh. I feel sorry for anyone who might have a hangover and stumbles upon this!
Yep. That’s me. Thankfully i haven’t eaten yet so there’s nothing for me to throw up.
as a pregnant woman, I can assure you that you do not need to eat to vomit.
It’s less fun that way, though.
I would have to fully agree with this comment, having been pregnant 3 times in the past and suffering the worst possible morning sickness with the second.
Srsly… never been pregnant myself, but had some stomach bug once that gave me dry-heaves… NOT fun.
Your description just made ME throw up in my mouth a little. Thankfully this was NOT part of my childhood (though the ambrosia gelatin WAS).
fruit float was unbelieveably delicious! i have been trying to remember its name for years. there was strawberry and, i think, mandarin orange. i don’t even like pudding but i loved fruit float!
Awe man, the bottom one is called (in my family) the pink stuff. Its actually not that bad. Or at least thats what it looks like. Its cream cheese, marshmellows, pineapple, cherries and strawberry jello all mixed together.
Whoa! We had something similar, only ours was fruit cocktail, cottage cheese, strawberry jello (not prepared–just powder), and pineapple. Weird. We called it pink stuff too. We made a similar kind with orange jello and mandarin oranges for Halloween…
My mom makes a similar one for holidays but uses pineapple, cream cheese, celery and lime jello powder. it’s awesome!
Green stuff! thats what we do… just no celery and instead of whipped cream we use vanilla ice cream, when it melts while mixing it makes a creamier version.
Oh my god, I had no idea that it was called Ambrosia, I just remember it from family gatherings. I think in my family, they use pinapple, glace cherries, shredded coconut, pitted cherries from a can , marshmallows and I think some mixture of cream cheese with icing powder. It tastes friggin awful.
That is not ambrosia. Ambrosia is made from egg yolks. And is delicious.
That said, what the hell is that thing? Major ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
I’ve never heard of ambrosia made with egg yolks. Ours was fluff, fruit cocktail, coconut, maybe cream cheese, and lord knows what else.
i think there might be a thousand different recipes for ambrosia. my family’s recipe is orange pulp, cherries, coconut, and a ton of sugar.
i don’t like coconut so i never enjoyed our version of ambrosia.
Recipe: Ambrosia
Home > Library > Food & Cooking > RecipesRecipe origin: Brazil
Ingredients
4 cups milk
2 cups sugar
9 large egg yolks
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
4 whole cloves
Procedure
Place the milk in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Remove it from the heat, and add the sugar and the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well with a wire whisk after each addition. Add the cloves and the lemon juice.
Cook over medium heat for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until the mixture becomes golden and grainy.
Chill and serve cold.
Serves 8.
Ambrosia (the food of the Gods) is definitely not the least bit similar to Ambrosia Salad, which is more commonly referred to as *general color of things mixed together* Stuff.
The second picture isn’t what my family called ambrosia. Our ambrosia was cut up assorted fresh fruit–whatever was handy, but oranges had to be one of them–with shredded coconut, powdered sugar, and a sprinkling of Ouzo.
I wonder what would happen if that can was opened?
Bad things. Very, very bad things.
I would think, at the very least, the EPA would be involved.
Oh no! Fruit float was AWESOME! I remember eating it as a little girl. It didn’t look like that horrific ambrosia at all. It looked and tasted like fruity pudding. Yum yum!
Our ambrosia salad used Cool Whip, marshmellows, shredded coconut, shredded pineapple, mandarin orange slices, banana slices, cherries and pecan bits. It was DEELISHUSS.
CoolHwip
Huh?
Coolhwip.
ditto
Yes indeed it was… and that’s what ours was like too… there was no disgusting gelatin in ours.
I am not familiar with this, but am very familiar with midwestern jello salads. You basically take whatever color jello that matches your vegetable (lime and peas, or orange and carrots), and mix it in befor it congeals. Then you make this topping out of eggs and oil, and serve.
I think the real joy in serving this is watching unsuspecting kid’s faces when they take a bite of it, and think they’re getting something sweet and tasty. Blech
Stephen King calls that Mormon Soul Food.
I’m from the Midwest and that, madame, is not Midwestern. It’s a soulless abomination.
Dear gods, Jello, veggies, eggs and oil? What kind of Gitmo-created torture device is THAT?
I agree, your family is evil to lie and tell you thats normal. Midwestern Jello Salad is, in general, made of at least a few of the following ingredients:
Flavor of Jello
Fruit that match the color of that flavor
Cool Whip or Ice Cream
Cream Cheese or Cottage Cheese
Pineapple
and is usually called *color of jello* Stuff
I don’t remember Libby’s fruit float – but I do remember seeing something called “Watergate Salad” at many a picnic when I was a kid. I never ate it – it looked disgusting. Here’s what’s in it!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Watergate-Salad/Detail.aspx
Blarg!
From the recipe, it looks delicious! It just needs some color and a pretty layer of blanched almonds on top!
i’ve had watergate, it’s pretty tasty
i didn’t know its name was “Watergate”. it was my grandma’s special dish she always made at the holidays, i just thought she was creative haha.
So called because it was originally served at the restaurant of the Watergate Hotel in DC.
Is Nixon in the mix?
Fruit Float was one of the most delicious things that I’ve ever eaten…cool and creamy, yet fruity too
But… WHY did this make it onto the first page as an epic win? It’s 19 votes FOR and 306 AGAINST! I thot that meant that a huge majority of viewers did NOT want to see it.
Oh, and ftr, I never heard of this stuff – it looks nasty.
Note the heading: “Friday Fail”
I thought it was called marshmellow salad?? I use cool whip, marshmellows,crushed pineapple, manderins,coconut. I refuse to eat my MIL salad eww!
I married into a family tradition called – I kid you not- “GREEN MOLD”. It’s actually delicious and easy. 1 container cottage cheese mix in 1 package lime jello powder, 1 can crushed pineapple (Drained of juice), 1 can mandarin oranges (ditto) and fold in 1 container coolwhip (thawed), sprinkle chopped walnuts on top. Even kids will eat this.
I don’t remember “Fruit Float”, but I do remember the jello-like packaged stuff that when you made it separated into 3 layers – a dark colored bottom layer, pastel-colored middle layer, and a white “topping” layer. In 1970 I thought it was “COOL” – anyone remember the name? I think it made a short reappearance around 1995?
that was some stuff that came in a packet right? It settled out like that all on its own. And we ate it! You got the little Tupperware containers with the lids and then let it set up with the container on its side so you got stripes, not layers…what was that crap?!?
You lost me at “cottage cheese”
(baaarf!)
jello 1-2-3 was the name of that stuff, and it was magic!
Y’know, that actually sounds kind of tasty!
called Jello 1 2 3… i think i just saw a dusty box of this on a store shelf somewhere.
http://www.yumsugar.com/216558
btw, never search the word jello, from what i found our culture is b*tt deep in the stuff.
That three layer stuff was called Jello 1-2-3. I loved it!
Fruit Float had nothing to do with the concoction under it.
To make it, you added one can of cold milk to one can of Fruit Float, then stirred it for a while. It was delicious. My own guess would be that it was a mix of mashed fruit, fruit juice, sugar (probably HFCS) and a thickening agent (cornstarch? carageenan? agar?)
While Fruit Float was off the shelves here by 1982, there was a Japanese version sold in Japanese grocery stores for at least a decade afterwards.
omg! My sister and I used to laugh ourselves silly at the stupid commercials, which I hardly remember, except that people or kids kept trying to say “Fruit Float, Fruit Float, Fruit Float.” Then we would try to say it as fast as possible. Y’know – stupid sibling games!
Don’t remember trying it, tho. Just remember the above and the Libby’s jingle…
Fruit Float, Fruit Float, Flute Froat!
Ugh. My stomach just flipped over.
Anything that pink, in a can, and claiming to be a “fruit dessert” warns me to stay the heck away.
We actually called ambrosia “marshmallow salad” in my family. (As opposed to potato salad, I guess) I didn’t like it as a kid, but it slowly grew on me over the years… no maraschino cherries, though. Ick.
Ahhh yes….the glory days: pedaling the ol’ Stingray to my pal’s house while chomping a Space Food Stick. The plan is to get together and go buy more Wacky Packages, but while we are there, I spy my current favorite canned slobber, Libby’s Fruit Float. That shelf of the grocerette also had the Jello 1-2-3 and boxed Dream Whip, another alluring faux-food. I’ve remembered this stuff for a lonnnnnng time. Peach and strawberry were the best, with pineapple being the weirdest. Measure out one can of milk, mix ’til the milk disappears, and get to slurpin’. Less milk equalled a more coagulated experience. Either way, it wiggled pleasantly in a vaguely Freudian way in the bowl, and the commercials were very effective on teens jaded by typical Wonka bars. (Ambrosia belongs in the same hall of fame as 3 bean salad and those truly scary Xmas fruit cakes)
I still make a salad that many refer to as Ambrosia. It has pineapple, mandarin oranges, mini marshmallows, coconut and Kool Whip. It is held together with a sauce made by cooking sugar, flour, pineapple juice and eggs. The main ingredient is a 16 oz box of a pasta called Acini de Pepe (tiny tiny tiny balls of pasta). The original recipe was found on the box of Creamettes Acini de Pepe. It makes 25 servings so it is good for pot luck picnics. Each serving contains 220 calories. You can freeze the left overs but it changes the texture somewhat. If you use tapioca flour instead of wheat flour the texture does not change. It’s delicious.
being very young, I never had this.
but i do remember the lunchroom serving stuff like this for dessert.
ambrosia, the name even sounds disgusting.
The word Ambrosia means food of the Gods. The salad I make with the Acini de Pepe is called Frog Eye Salad. Now that name sounds disgusting.
You people are CRAZY!. Fruit Float was sooo good. It was so good us kids would pool our small change and buy it and make it for a cool summer afternoon treat. It was like a delicious fruity creamy parfait. It was a smoothie before there was such a thing as smoothie. We loved it. My brothers and sisters still reminisce. I would love it if Libby’s would bring it back.
not so sure about this product, how about NOT eating out of a can for a change.
Would anyone know how to make a homemade substitute for Fruit Float? I would love to try to make some. Thanks