The debate over ambrosia has gone on for over a century but who is right?

Mostly a holiday treat for Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, ambrosia of yore was a humble delight.

In 1867, Maria Massey Barringer of Concord, North Carolina, provided a recipe in her “Dixie Cookery; or, How I Managed My Table for Twelve Years.” She counseled readers to stick to fresh grated coconut, sweetened with a little sugar in alternating layers with pulped oranges.

Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine, founded in Philadelphia, agreed with Barringer’s take on ambrosia in 1870, but offered pineapple as a worthy alternative. “Some use both,” the magazine noted, “but it is better with only one fruit.”

“Classic ambrosia consists of oranges and coconut, then sugar to taste,” said James Beard Award-winning chef Virginia Willis in Atlanta. “Ambrosia isn’t retro. Ambrosia has never gone out of fashion in the South. I’ve probably had ambrosia every year of my 56 years.”

Aficionados like Willis feel strongly about their ambrosia, sometimes relying on recipes passed down within families for generations.

Feelings run hot all along the ambrosia spectrum, starting with the name. It’s ambrosia if it’s a dessert. It’s ambrosia salad when it takes a prideful spot on the table during the main course.

There are other debates.

Coconut: Use it or forget it? Fresh or pre-shredded? Toasted or not?

Fruit: Canned or fresh? One type or several? Drain or use the juices?

Maraschino cherries: Dump in wet, risking a pink tinge to the end result? Drain and pat dry? Hard pass altogether?

Marshmallows: The big ones or the miniatures? The white ones or the multicolored pastels? Leave out because they’re gag-inducing?

Whipped cream, cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, mayo?

Ambrosia was so named for the food of the Greek and Roman gods. Its region of origin is lost to history. Its ties to the South are strong, though some believe it began in Vermont or elsewhere in New England.

David Shields, a culinary historian, author and professor at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, has another theory.

“Ambrosia starts popping up in newspaper stories on local parties,” he said. “In the latter 1870s, the earliest of those sorts of stories actually all come from Missouri for some reason.”

The dish can be a gross-out for some, with its unusual look and texture, but it began as an exotic luxury using hard-to-find ingredients.