Pat’s Shrimp Delight Mold

 
It’s still a little warm for extended cooking. So here’s another cold appetizer. Like the cowboy caviar I discussed recently, it can be made into a meal in a pinch.
 
The recipe came from an old friend of my family. Pat’s mother Dusty was my grandfather’s secretary for decades and a fixture at gatherings of our clan. We loved her for her good nature, her competence, and her sense of humor.
 
Pat is also a darling–and a good cook, too!
 
The mold comes from the era in which molded food was one of the queens of American kitchens. I think of it as a 1950s recipe, although it could date from earlier. I’ve seen versions of it with chili sauce, Worcestershire sauce, chopped hard-boiled eggs, and even lemon flavored gelatin.
 
Next time I make it I think I’ll throw in a little lemon juice and maybe some dill. It’s pretty tasty as it is, however. The canned soup and the gelatin may startle you, but honestly I’ve never served it to a guest who didn’t ask for seconds.
 
The Mold
 
Ingredients:
 
1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed tomato soup
8 ounces cream cheese
1 package (1/4 ounce) gelatin
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery or cucumber (or a mixture)
1 pound cooked shrimp (canned if necessary, as it was for me recently since I couldn’t get to the big city to shop!), cut up
3/4 cup mayonnaise
 
Instructions:
 
Melt the soup and cream cheese together in a large saucepan. While they are heating, dissolve the gelatin in the water. 

Turn off the heat under the soup/cheese mixture and stir in the gelatin and the remaining ingredients. Pour into a greased mold and chill at least a day. Unmold carefully! (You may always just put it in a pretty bowl if molding daunts you.) Serve with buttery crackers such as Ritz. Serves 12.


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7 Responses to “Pat’s Shrimp Delight Mold”

  1. Flaneur says:

    The thing I find most astonishing about this posting is not the recipe, but rather the photograph. It’s like an illustration of the miracle of the fishes-and-the-loaves, or in this case the fishes in the loaf. That you managed to make this recipe and then successfully unmold the entire thing is indeed miraculous. I have never been able to completely and wholly unmold anything. Ever. At first I wondered why you hadn’t shown the shrimp ring sliced, to better reveal what the consistency might be like, but when I thought a moment I realized that, had I had such a triumph, I’d want to display my victory in its entirety. Bravo, Tinky!

  2. I agree-I am so impressed you got it all out of that mold! Good job-Tinky! The combination of flavors sound wonderful as well…yum…anything I can spread on a ‘buttery cracker’ 🙂

  3. It looks lovely, but I will have to pass on this one, as I’m allergic to shellfish!! Glad to see you managed to comment! Have a super weekend, love, Anne

  4. Janice Sorensen says:

    This looks so yummy. I am imagining you could use canned salmon too. I have a mold in the shape of a brain I think I am going to need to use for this one. Fish is brain food after all! -j

  5. tinkyweisblat says:

    Flaneur, you attribute better motives than I had. I served it at a waterside picnic, and my lovely mold got pretty messy as people descended on it with their crackers! The consistency is sort of in betweenish. It’s not a spread, but it’s not solid, either. EveryDay, I am with you on the crackers. Frayed, I’m sorry to hear about the allergy; I had a feeling we might miss some folks with this recipe, between the shrimp and the gelatin. Janice, I would LOVE to see your brain mold!

  6. commonweeder says:

    I love to see recipes for cold hors d’oevres. This is not my favorite course, too much work for too little appreciation – so things like this that are simple, cold, and be done ahead go into my recipe file. thanks.

  7. tinkyweisblat says:

    Commonweeder, I couldn’t agree more! I never see the point of hot hors d’oeuvres, for example; they keep the cook at the oven and away from her guests! But easy, premade stuff can still be showy.