Strawberry Pretzel Salad, Dee Carney

Red and white frozen dessert with berries on decorative blue plate with floral pattern

“Strawberry Pretzel Salad” is the stuff of potluck legend. Fruit; Jell-o; creamy whipped filling; and then – surprise! – a crunchy salty bottom-crust. It requires just enough assembly to be special. It’s quirky enough to be memorable. It’s the kind of “Suzie Homemaker” recipe that gets frequently requested from newspapers, and that people love to claim is of their own inspired invention.

Pretzels used as a crumb crust for pies may not be as ubiquitous as graham crackers, but the idea is not unheard of. 1950s recipe columns encouraged home cooks to give pretzel crust a try. “Sounds dizzy but tastes great,” the Orlando Sentinel declared in 1953. The Warren County Observer in Pennsylvania promised readers that they would “say it has a crunchiness and toasty taste that’s perfect for a lemon meringue pie” in 1954. Pretzel crust lemon chiffon pie became a new twist on lemon pie and other desserts.

Many online sources incorrectly state that the salad originated with the 1963 “Joys of Jell-o” cookbook. L.M. Zoller of the “I’ll Make It Myself” food blog wrote a great little zine on the topic and debunked this. L.M. noted that the earliest known (as of this post) instance of the dish in the 1960 “Brentwood Civic Club Cookbook” from Brentwood Pennsylvania, contributed by Gerry Franz Sullivan, a daughter of second-generation German immigrants in the Pittsburgh area.

Some sources also refer to this as a “Southern” dish for whatever reason, but we won’t bother with that. I believe that the layered strawberry concept may have appeared in Jell-o recipe books – but the pivotal flourish- the pretzel crust – was not included. Without that it’s just a Jell-o fruit salad.

The first newspaper appearance of Strawberry Pretzel Salad that I found was in 1972, in the Chicago Tribune, as “Pretzel-Crust Strawberry Dessert,” attributed to Mrs. Paul Meiners. I can’t identify Mrs. Meiners for certain, but I found a Paul Meiners in the Chicago area, the son of German immigrants.

In June 1974 the recipe appeared in the Bemidji, Minnesota Pioneer “Cooking with Candace” column under the more fetching name “Strawberry Pretzel Surprise.”

Woman picking strawberries in field near Plant City, Florida, with harvested berries in wooden crate, early 1900s — *Picking strawberries near Plant City, FL, c. 1928,* *loc.gov*

In 1975, the dessert got its big break at the Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City. Mrs. Merrill R. Stephan won the grand prize in the festival’s recipe contest with Strawberry Pretzel Salad, and the recipe has been a ‘women’s pages’ favorite ever since. Mrs. Stephan (maiden name Clara Eller) was 77 at the time she entered the contest, and Florida newspapers reported that she was surprised by the win, which earned her a new freezer.

Despite all of the glory, Clara Stephan didn’t claim to have invented the recipe, admitting that she got it from her elder sister in Illinois. That sister was Katherine Pfleeger, who lived in their home state and married Jacob W. Pfleeger. Like Mr. Paul Meiners, Pfleeger’s parents were German immigrants. The German community connection may explain the affinity for pretzels. For instance, one version of Pennsylvania Dutch Shoofly Pie is made with a pretzel crust.

Jacob Pfleeger died of illness in 1951, while Clara’s husband Lt. Col. Merrill Stephan died in Japan in 1954. The widowed sisters each partook in various social and charity groups, and apparently traded recipes. Both women died in 1987.

Mrs. Merrill Stephan displays her winning strawberry pretzel dessert at Plant City's Strawberry Festival contest — *Clara Stephan, Tampa Tribune, 1975*

That same year, Dee Carney submitted the Strawberry Pretzel Salad recipe to “Black-Eyed Susan Country,” a cookbook benefitting Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore. Some of my cookbooks have variations on the formula, including one made with pineapple, but I wanted to go for the famous strawberry version.

It was a hit; a perfect refreshing dessert after an afternoon of hot dogs and pasta salads. Perhaps Strawberry Pretzel Salad never got famous enough for anyone to have claimed its invention, but signs point to Pennsylvania origins. Newspapers recipe columns and community cookbooks have spread the tasty treat elsewhere – perhaps to a cookout near you.

Recipe:

2 Cups pretzels, coarsely crushed
3.5 Tablespoons sugar
.75 Cup melted butter
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 Cup sugar
1 large container frozen whipped topping
2 3 oz boxes strawberry gelatin
2 cups boiling water
30 oz strawberries

Mix pretzels, 3.5 Tb sugar and melted butter and press into a 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake at 400° for 6 minutes.
Beat cream cheese and whipped topping with 1 cup sugar, spread over baked pretzel crust.
Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Mix in berries. Jell for 20 minutes in refrigerator. Pour slowly over cream layer. Place in freezer. Allow to stand 30 minutes before serving. Serves 10 to 12.

Recipe adapted from “Black-Eyed Susan Country: A Collection of Recipes” published by the Saint Agnes Hospital Auxiliary