24-Hour Salad With Fruit and Custard Recipe

By
Linda Larsen
Linda Larsen
Linda Larsen is a journalist, quick-cooking and slow-cooking expert, and accomplished cookbook author with over 30 years of experience in testing and developing recipes.
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Updated on 12/6/21
24 hour salad recipe

The Spruce Eats / Teena Agnel

Prep: 25 mins
Cook: 10 mins
Chill Time: 24 hrs
Total: 24 hrs 35 mins
Servings: 8 to 10 servings

Twenty-four-hour salad is a creamy fruit salad made with a cooked custard and canned fruit, then chilled overnight. If you are familiar with ambrosia salad, this is a variation on that popular fruit salad. Instead of using cream as its base, 24-hour salad features egg custard as the foundation. It gets its name because you should refrigerate it for 24 hours before serving.

Popular in the Midwest, this dish is sweet enough to be a dessert and is a wonderful delicious addition to your holiday table. It is great to serve for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. It is also delicious served for Mother's Day, Father's Day, or any summer holiday party.

This delicious salad can be made with many other kinds of fruit, like fresh cubed cantaloupe or sliced strawberries work well, too.

The recipe is easy to make as long as you follow a few rules. First, cook the egg custard mixture long enough. Do not grow impatient with the custard. Getting the custard right is an important element for this dish. If the egg custard does not have enough time to set, the salad can become too thin. The custard has to be thick. It will thicken more when it's chilled, but adding fruits too early will thin it out.

Second, when it comes to canned fruits, make sure you use canned pineapple and canned mandarin oranges. Navel oranges are too bitter and too tough for this recipe. Tender and sweet mandarin oranges work best in this recipe.

When you are ready to serve the salad, put it into a glass serving bowl. The colors of the custard and fruit look really nice. Keep it chilled until just before serving, and make sure you promptly refrigerate any leftovers.

Ingredients

  • 1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple

  • 2 (15-ounce) cans mandarin oranges

  • 3 large eggs

  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

  • 3/4 cup sugar

  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice

  • 1 cup miniature marshmallows

  • 2 bananas, peeled and sliced

  • 3/4 cup heavy cream, whipped

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    Ingredients for 24 hour salad
    The Spruce Eats / Teena Agnel

  2. Drain the juices from the canned fruits and set the fruit aside. Pour the juices into a glass measuring cup. Add enough water to the combined juices, if necessary, to measure 1 1/2 cups.

    Drain juices
    The Spruce Eats / Teena Agnel

  3. Combine the eggs, flour, sugar, and the juice mixture in a heavy saucepan and beat very well with a wire whisk. You want to beat enough that the mixture is foamy.

    Combine egg, flour
    The Spruce Eats / Teena Agnel

  4. Cook the custard over medium heat, stirring it constantly with a wire whisk, until thick and boiling. You want to make sure that the mixture is thick enough so the salad will be thick.

    Cook the custard
    The Spruce Eats / Teena Agnel

  5. Remove the saucepan from the heat, stir in the lemon juice with a wire whisk, cover, and chill the custard in the refrigerator until cold, about 4 to 5 hours.

    Move saucepan from heat
    The Spruce Eats / Teena Agnel

  6. When the custard is cold, fold in the well-drained fruits, marshmallows, and the sliced bananas.

    Add fruit and marshmallow
    The Spruce Eats / Teena Agnel

  7. Gently fold in the whipped cream.

    Gently fold in
    The Spruce Eats / Teena Agnel

  8. Pour the salad into a serving bowl and cover. Chill for 24 hours.

    Chill
    The Spruce Eats / Teena Agnel

  9. Serve and enjoy.

    Serve
    The Spruce Eats / Teena Agnel
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
250 Calories
8g Fat
43g Carbs
4g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8 to 10
Amount per serving
Calories 250
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 8g 10%
Saturated Fat 5g 23%
Cholesterol 76mg 25%
Sodium 36mg 2%
Total Carbohydrate 43g 16%
Dietary Fiber 2g 8%
Total Sugars 37g
Protein 4g
Vitamin C 37mg 185%
Calcium 40mg 3%
Iron 1mg 5%
Potassium 314mg 7%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)