Grapegate: Remembering the New York Times’ grape salad debacle 10 years later
A decade ago, NYT food writers did Minnesota dirty on a Thanksgiving recipe roundup
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As part of its 2014 collection of recipes “The United States of Thanksgiving,” the New York Times upset most of the state of Minnesota by claiming we celebrate Thanksgiving with what appeared to be a disgusting, broiled grape salad.
The Times said it “scoured the nation for recipes that evoke each of the 50 states,” and Minnesota wound up with this grape monstrosity mixed with sour cream and topped with brown sugar.
We weren’t so much mad as we were disappointed.
Minnesotans like their salads. And they take the art of making a dish of mixed ingredients held together with condiments or salad dressings — typically served chilled — in directions that may seem … different to some folks outside the Midwest.
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The mixed ingredients can be anything, not just lettuce and vegetables. I’m talking about mini marshmallows, pineapple tidbits and chopped-up candy bars. They are often topped with coconut or crushed pecans.
Condiments and dressings can range from a coating of Cool Whip to a binder of fruity Jell-O. (Sometimes both!)
And, for this Minnesotan — and the many others outraged by Grapegate — we do not put salads in the oven.
Minnesotans knew something was amiss with this grape salad from the first step.
“Heat broiler.”
No.
“Place under broiler…”
Absolutely not.
The recipe calls for chilling the dish after preparation (thank goodness), but why sour cream?
“Other versions, I hear, call for softened cream cheese and nondairy ‘whipped topping;’ I can’t say I’ll be trying that.”
The audacity.
Well you really should have, David. And you should have kept it out of the oven.
Also, was using a single source for this endeavor really the best choice? Who was this mysterious, unnamed “Minnesota-born heiress” that claimed grape salad “was always part of the holiday buffet” anyways? I don’t care that she “made a lot of Swedish pancakes with lingonberries,” as you stated in your response to outraged Minnesotans.
I agree with a Facebook commenter on the Times’ post about the recipe: The only royalty I trust on this matter are dairy princesses.
Minnesota food folks were riled. James Beard Award-wining food writer Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl told MPR News in November 2014:
“I could not be more outraged by the whole grape salad thing. That has nothing to do with Minnesota. We don’t grow those green table grapes. We definitely don’t grow them in November … and pecans are from the south,” she said. “I think it’s almost like a veiled insult. They want to be beating us over the head with Jell-O salad but they don’t actually have the guts to do it.”
Amy Thielen, author of the James Beard Award-winning “The New Midwestern Table” cookbook, was also baffled at the Times’ choice for Minnesota.
“In all of my research, in all of the church cookbooks I have and all of the Minnesota food books that I have, I have not found grape salad … and nobody in Minnesota would call themselves an heiress,” Thielen told MPR News in 2014. “I did get one lead from my aunt, and she said that she remembered a grape salad that they served at the Lowell Inn in Stillwater. And so I called them, and it’s actually called Grapes Devonshire. That sounds like a dish fit for an heiress, right?”
NPR’s pop culture correspondent Linda Holmes even chimed in with her experience after living in Minnesota for 10 years.
“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,” she said. “Please don’t accuse us of being best represented by a tradition (?) of heating up grapes for Thanksgiving.”
What's your favorite Midwest salad? And what do you think the Thanksgiving dish for Minnesota should be? Email us at tell@mpr.org and share your thoughts and recipes. We’ll share our favorites with you next week ahead of Thanksgiving.