I don't understand how this is a "salad." It looks like a dessert.

Jello?

And frozen whipped topping? I also wondered about the "salad".

Yup! Molded salad made with gelatin are very retro. Why? because…

”Jellied salads, unlike tossed ones, were mess-free, never transgressing the border of the plate: "A salad at last in control of itself," Shapiro writes. Cooks in this era molded everything from cooked spinach to chicken salad, with care to avoid the cardinal sin of messiness.”

The History Of Jello Salads

I printed this one, have not had it in many years, Thank you!!!

Well, we all have our tastes, preferences and approaches. If you like this, make it and enjoy it, of course.

I missed the Cool Whip item. What with the effort so many make to eat more healthy basic ingredients and less packaged foods, I haven't knowingly eaten or purchased some of these items for a long while. Even my Greatest Generation mother who died nearly 20 years ago had long moved away from recipes that involved combining packages of processed foods. As this recipe uses frozen rather than fresh strawberries, there's really nothing seasonable about it. At one point, this thread was right next to the thread on the topic of managing diabetes.

If the strawberries are encased in gelatin and separated from the pretzel layer by a cream cheese layer, I cannot see how using fresh strawberries would make a difference. I find frozen strawberries are mushy and soggy when they defrost, so I would think they'd be even more likely to make the base soggy.

Back to the 50's.

My aunt introduced this dish to us sometime in the 1970's. Yummy! I'm pretty sure we treated it as a dessert, despite it being called a salad. Sogginess was not a problem because there were never any leftovers, what with all the family enjoying it so much! So, make the full recipe when you have enough people to share it with :-)

Every once in a while someone would bring this to a work potluck dinner. It's really good. Maybe not good for you but not like someone is going to eat it every day.

What Colleen said about the strawberries. Frozen seem wetter to me but regardless, if you’re pouring a liquid gelatin on this and the pretzels get soggy, seems to me the problem would be with the execution of the cream cheese barrier not the jello. Several reviews mention chilling the jello layer a bit before pouring over the chilled cream cheese.

I have no automatic aversion to jello, but I‘m envisioning it getting a little messy once serving begins. I’d be tempted to make these in individual servings, preferably in the old school clear pyrex custard cups with wavy rim.

Great quote maddielee. love the reasoning. i do like tomato aspic on crunchy lettuce as i recall (its been many years).

I make a version of this and my family loves it. I use a 16 oz tub of frozen strawberries and also add sliced fresh strawberries to the jello mixture. The cream cheese layer needs to be spread all the way to the sides of the pan/dish (no gaps!) so the strawberry mixture doesn’t leak down to the pretzel crust. And yes, chill the jello mixture just a bit so it’s not completey runny.

i don't think I've eaten jello in over 50 years.

America’s Test Kitchen just featured this Strawberry Pretzel Salad, so I thought I’d add their version here. The main difference is making the whipped cream layer from scratch and using unflavored gelatin rather than Jello. ( I can’t write Jello without singing the jingle in my head). I guess it could be a ”ladies luncheon” salad or a dessert. Not that gentleman aren’t welcome at a luncheon, too! AFT version

Oops, meant ATK version, not AFT !

Not sald, just as a Watergate Salad is not a salad; delicious but not for the country club, this is back yard bbq food and is sooooooo good