An Improper Formal Dinner Course

The term “fruit cup” denoted a type of “fruit cocktail” which was chopped fruits amidst the occasional maraschino cherry, served in a thick, sweet syrup. Special orange cups or fruit holders, like these which were developed in the gilded age, made oranges enticing and eating the fresh fruit elegant. These antiques would have been a welcome and refreshing change to the 1960’s formal table, as a break from that ‘ubiquitous fruit cup.’

“No Fruit Cup!”

“Avoid anything sweet for the beginning of a menu. If you serve fruit, serve it in its natural state, such as a melon with a wedge of lime or lemon, or a grapefruit cut in half. One of the famous banquet menu-makers in this country says that the ‘ubiquitous fruit cup’ is badly placed on American menus as a beginning course and should appear only at the end of a meal, ‘its normal place.’ Out of his experience he added that the custom of fruit cup came in during Prohibition, as a substitute for cocktails, frequently ‘bathed in a pink sweet liquid vaguely reminiscent of liquor, and the custom continued after repeal.’ — Helen Sprackling, 1960

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