How A Mormon-Inspired Dessert Became A Holiday Tradition In Utah

What do pasta, candy, and citrus fruits have in common? Nothing, really, except for the fact that these unlikely ingredients come together to create an old-school Mormon recipe called frog eye salad. This fruity, completely vegetarian dish (amphibians are nowhere to be found) is closely associated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah, where it can be frequently spotted at potlucks, events, family gatherings, and holidays like Thanksgiving.

As with many vintage dishes, frog eye salad can be divisive. After all, it's creamy, lumpy, and studded with chunks of colorful fruit. There are plenty of variations, but generally, this sweet version of pasta salad contains a hodgepodge of ingredients, including acini di pepe pasta, mandarin oranges, shredded coconut, marshmallows, canned pineapple, pineapple juice, eggs, and whipped cream. While it's not clear which resourceful cook first combined these ingredients, the recipe has been enjoyed for at least 60 years, gaining popularity throughout the Beehive State and regionally.

Frog eye salad is quite similar to ambrosia salad, which uses mostly the same ingredients minus the pasta, or glorified rice, a dish that is essentially the same but uses rice instead of pasta. Like other dessert salads, it functions both as a side dish to the main meal and as a dessert — meaning it's not uncommon to eat it twice during the same meal.

Why the pasta? Acini di pepe, a relatively unknown pasta shape is tiny and shaped like a seed; when it is cooked and added to the salad, it has a chewy texture that acts similar to small tapioca balls or rice in a dessert pudding. This is likely where the name comes from — the small pieces are what one could imagine to be the size and texture of frog eyes. Although technically a pasta salad, there's barely any resemblance to the classic savory recipe. 

For frog eye salad, egg yolk is cooked with pineapple juice, salt, sugar, and cornstarch to make a custard. The cooked pasta is added to the custard and left to chill overnight in the fridge so that it can soak up all the flavors; the next day, the fruits and coconut are added. Whipped cream — homemade or storebought like Cool Whip — is folded in. The crowning touch is a topping of mini marshmallows (the colored variety makes for a vibrant garnish) and sometimes maraschino cherries. The dish is served chilled, and chilling it for a few hours in the fridge before serving is best.

Going through the ingredients, there is nothing that is necessarily local to the Rocky Mountain region, nor a particular ingredient that is tied to the Mormon church. So, how exactly did this recipe become a key dish in this religion's food culture?

Like other vintage dishes, the origins of frog eye salad are a bit tricky to track down. Recipes have found their way into church cookbooks and onto the back of acini di pepe pasta boxes since at least the 1960s. However, its creation remains a mystery. The same is true for Ambrosia salad, which seems to have started popping up in cookbooks around the late 1800s. So, it's possible that frog eye salad was a variation of this older recipe.

Regardless of where it came from, the Mormon community has claimed frog eye salad as its own. It's logical that frog eye salad became popular as a potluck dish for church and family gatherings, as it's easy to make in big batches; however, it's not exactly clear when or why this recipe became linked to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Reddit threads and Mormon bloggers confirm that it is an integral part of the religion's food culture, served alongside other dishes like green jello and funeral potatoes. 

If you're not a part of the LDS church or live in the Rocky Mountain region, it might seem like some niche or obscure recipe — but it's more popular than you'd expect. In 2014, the New York Times reported that it was the most Googled recipe in four states — Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, and Idaho — and came in at second place in Utah. Are you planning to make frog eye salad as a side for your Thanksgiving meal? If so, consider making your own three-ingredient marshmallows.