Jell-O Salads
 

Has anyone made/eaten them?
Reading about the 20th century, and bumped into these Jell-O foods:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aGTHgfY_1v...ello-salad.jpg

Having seen a lot of them, I'm tempted to make one xD

My mom used to make them ALL THE TIME. I never thought about them being "20th century" food.

Then again, I'm not used to thinking about the 20th century being a different time period.

Well, it's only 17 years into the 21st century xD.

Seems like it was really popular :o

It was. You could be certain to see a jello salad of some sort at any big gathering in the 80s and early 90s. (I assume it was probably true in the 70s too; I don't know how far back it goes.)

The thing is, Potironette, you don't REMEMBER the 20th century. Meanwhile, 17 years ISN'T EVEN HALF OF MY LIFE YET. (It will be in a couple months... ._. )

Yep, the 20th century isn't even part of my life x'D. It's history to me!

It's kind of interesting thinking about how people from then are alive today, especially since I've never learned/thought of recent history until now.

Imagining Jell-O salad from my perspective, it seems like a really weird food. But seeing that people did eat that a lot, it must have been pretty tasty :o

Convenient and fashionable. Seems reasonable xD!

I hadn't known the Jell-O salads had mayo on them too o_o
I did see a bunch of recipes that asked for mayo but
Looking back at a recipe, I hadn't noticed the mayo + sugary gelatin pairings. (It's a 1911 recipe, I haven't gotten later into the century yet)

I... have never once seen a jello salad with mayo in it. O.o It's always been jello with fruit and/or nuts and/or shredded carrots in it, sometimes chopped up and served with whipped cream.

Regional thing, maybe? At least in Kansas we didn't do the savory jello salads. They were all sweet sides or desserts.

And the jello salad I can buy at the store here in California is red jello cubes mixed with whipped cream.

only jell-o salad I've had has had fruit in it. and I hear you, Coda. but for me, half my life being in the 21st century happened three years ago.

That's because you're younger than me, Den. ;) This is old-man Coda shaking his cane here.

Those you could get up here too, though I don't recall actually seeing many of them in the past few years. They were generally all red jello or a mix of red, green, and orange, I think.

We were looking through old gelatin meal things and there is some crazy stuff. We were so fascinated with it all we actually thought about having a 70's themed party to try and make some of this stuff.

Imagine this: entire loaf of spam, (or some pressed meat thing), hollowed out with some manner of lime jello concoction on the inside (it was always lime jello according to my step-mother, because flavourless wasn't really a thing), cover the whole thing in some manner of mayo sauce thing and decorations, serve on a platter and slice. The jello creations looked so elaborate that I can't imagine they would be in any way convenient to make.

Anyone for jello tuna?? Courtesy of a Buzzfeed article I spotted while google image searching "1970s jello recipes" just now.

That's fancy :o
But I wonder if people eat Jell-O stuff on a near daily basis too? As for not in dinner parties? And maybe then it'd be less elaborate?

Thankfully, other than like...the store bought jello rings that are basically flavored jello and a super rare (I don't remember ever seeing it again past grade school age) fruit in jello salad, my family never got into jello salads. All of the non-sweet ones sound just disgusting.

The only times I've eaten jello, they were in little cups of nothing but clear jello.

I was pretty surprised at the fact that it was called jello "salad" since whenever I think I salad, I don't think of jello xD

My family didn't live in the US so I can't ask them about jelly things.
Until now, I didn't know stores ever sold jello rings :o

Oh my god... if you haven't google deserts from the 70s. I am not sure how this happened, but I am sure it was jell-o related. I digress. I have not had a Jell-o salad. I have had jell-o beans. My aunt used to make them for the holidays.

Honestly, I get along better with people older than me, Coda. I'm not complaining though. I've met some seriously awesome people whom I'm still friends with years after meeting them.

Jell-O beans :o. I wonder how they tasted?

It feels like practically everything can be encased/paired with Jell-O. No wonder the brand's boxes are still around xD

XD you guys are redic, hahahaha you need to look up the word 'aspic' that is what savories served in a meat gelatin are actually called, if you look up jello you'll get stuff like what you are getting now XD if someone served their dinner in lime jello you can be assured that either a garbage cook or general ignorance was the cause of it, the real deal is terribly time-consuming, requires actual knowledge of how to cook and set dishes XD


to be fair, i am a little biased XD i have cookbooks for both and the ones with instant flavored jello always read like someone had a little too much help from mother's little helper

Oooooooooor they're from earlier in the 20th century and that's the way they grew up having it and that's the way they like it and it's not worth the extra effort for a result that tastes different?

But we're not talking about savories served in a meat gelatin. We're talking about savories in actual flavored (and unflavored in some cases) jello? Hence the topic being jello salad and not aspic?

unflavored gelatin is not always artificial, it usually is meat-based or at the very least animal based.

for sure though if potpot is looking at a 1911 recipe then they are 100% looking at an aspic-style "instant" jello(which would still be called a jello/jelly salad), the 15 minute instant jello that does not require boil, strain, settle and chill is still several years off at that point XD the jello in the ad is mid-century and my comment on that still stands true(and galla's variance is legit, it was a thing for a while to add mayo)

do know that the jello brand has been around since the victorian era and even though 1950s-1970s americana is where the stuff gained a lot of the contemporary notions of what is and is not acceptable aspic(for sure though some of it really does not qualify on a technical level)it is NOT the only time it was in vogue or even the time where it was most popular



if coda prefers the taste of instant jello topped with sweetened canned goods that is his prerogative but i have spoken to a /lot/ of people who were there serving and eating the stuff and for the most part it is agreed it's not very good at all XD of course i have also asked around and a lot of people from those decades have never tried anything other than instant flavored variants XD soooo that is a thing to take note of

I do know that aspic exists..but I didn't know that was a thing. I did see one instance of "aspic" in the very early 1900s but it flew out of my mind pretty quickly...looking back, I think it is aspic! (I don't know how aspic is made, and didn't realize "powdered gelatin" was part of the making process, woops).

(Speaking of which, though, I should be researching further into the century if I want to get anywhere for my history class xD (This Jell-O thing was something I side-tracked myself off of environmental stuff for x'D))

Packaged foods seemed to be err, desirable? In the past? I wouldn't know actually, since I'm reading this from some books only.

I do know Jell-O brand was around at least by early 1910s, but I had no idea it'd begun even earlier than that :o! I wonder how it took off?

What is and what is not acceptable aspic..? As in what qualifies as aspic? I'm surprised that was going on at that time :o

haha, well it depends on the country and the decade but powdered gelatin was in use in the very late 1800s, i know the last decade of the century for sure had it though reputable(ie not built around brand or based on home/church kitchen) books did not talk too much about it and either a assumed you'd just know or else would have basic instructions for a homemade gelatin in all the books i own on the subject i think only one actually gives full instructions on the matter X''D it was just taken for granted that cookbooks were an addition on the cooking you'd learn either from family or from apprenticeship and many would use the default dimensions of a branded food(ie 1 box jello gelatin) regardless of how official they were or if they were brand loyal in their preparation


oops XD i can see why you would though, food history if absolutely fascinating<3<3 i have likely read more books on food than i have actual school texts hahahaha for sure i have owned more!


prepackaged food reduced daily cooking time for people by so much! it was super desirable XD


cold-set with food inside= acceptable
used as a plate with the food on top= not acceptable


anything between the two depends on who you ask, personally i am uptight and am in the party of 'needs to have coherency' so just adding canned tuna, marshmallow bits and mayo in a lime jello all straight from their respective containers is simply unforgivable XD however a baked tuna flank immersed in a fish jello with bits of vinegar mayo and lime/lemon slices totally is alright even if it is topped with a sweet meringue haha

I'm surprised that was what was just accepted--it's so much different now, I think? (The only cookbook I've seen is my sister's xD. It teaches people how to cut stuff/prepare things in the beginning)

Powdered gelatin was in use really early :o

Jell-O/aspic were used as plates :o? I've seen a lot of pictures with food inside, but haven't seen ones without, I think.
...It can be not cold-set?

I'm curious how much canned foods were used when cooking, and how acceptable/normal it was :o. I get that today people prefer to use non-canned things, but that's now and not then ><

I didn't say that was my own preference. I've never actually HAD non-instant gelatin. I'm reacting to your overblown food snobbery.

A Youtube Channel called EmmyMadeInJapan made several videos of herself making these retro dishes, and she shows how she makes them and how they taste like. Her opinions are honest and it's fun to watch her.

Here's one where she makes Lime Cheese Jello. It looks horrendous. :s-laugh: I think she made another video that had spaghetti-os in jello

Oh gosh, spaghetti-o's? The lime jello's description of onion, jello, and cheese was enough to put me off x'D.

What makes me a little sad is the fact that I'm pretty sure these Jell-O dishes were supposed to be beautiful and dainty (in the 1910s..) why else use a mold? These don't look particularly beautiful nor dainty xD.



(..Why am I even up at this time?
I have a research update due tomorrow, and I've just been writing things down -dies-.)

How late is it there? It's currently afternoon where I'm from.

I guess the Jell-O dishes in the 1910s were pretty and dainty because it's a dish for those who can afford a fridge (which was expensive during those times). So I guess the more pretty and exaggerated it looks, the more wealthy your host probably was.

@Potironette: XD Jell-o beans are just various flavored jell-o in the shape of a bean. It used to be the desert of choice at family gatherings along with Super Dirt cake. <3 My taste for jello has changed over the years. There are certain sweets that I have stopped eating and they are one of them.

it is def different now. before it was very unusual for people to try cooking for the very first time as an adult with no prior education on the matter while now it is not only expected that many persons of any age will be coming in with little or no abilities but it is also expected that regardless of how much you know about cooking that you will not keep an encyclopedic knowledge of all the dishes you already have made(that and for the sake of personal taste any meal that the cook goes back to from time to time will be modified some to suit their taste anyway)

when i say as a plate i mean like the picture in your first post. where the food is served outside of the aspic instead of in it(and yes i do see there there are bts of things inside but the bulk of the meal is served on top of it)

kinda. when i say cold set i mean something thoroughly chilled up until the time it is set out on the table to be eaten/looked at. some aspics (mostly inedible ones) were used as a preservation measure much like salting or smoking was

i cannot say how ubiquitous it was but from 1900-1970 or so there were soooo many cookbooks that relied on tinned and boxed foods to make fancy dinners/desserts and i totally get why. it was quite easy for many foods to spoil in shipping and this was a viable way to have foods that came from all over the world so one was not stuck with whatever was being grown/hunted/harvested within the 50-100 mile scope of local agriculture. places like greenland could have pineapple and places like alaska could have milk


this is fair too XD the texture /is/ pretty weird hahahaha


from what i know on the matter NCS3RR4N is correct, it is less that it is dainty and more that it shows that you have the time and resources to make something extravagant. it is less work to make a sandwich with a few slices of aubergine and a smear of garlic-mayo on some regular bread than it is to make an aubergine caviar and serve it on toasted slices of diagonal-sliced baguette topped with chilled mayonnaise rosettes but the latter looks much more impressive at a party even if they are made close to the same ingredients

It was 1:20 AM when I wrote that, though I stayed up until 3:00 AM to finish the rest of my homework x'D

Ohh I see, that makes sense!

Wow, bean-shaped jello, that sounds really cute :o. Super dirt cake..sounds like chocolate!

Ohh, that does look a Jello plate. I guess this famous thing isn't though:


I wonder if dinner parties were a big thing then (..although, I wonder too if dinner parties are a big thing now too, I don't really know :x).

Oh wow, aspic was used for preservation!
I'd forgotten about food spoiling :o

O_O what is that? I don't think I would eat that if I saw that in front of my face. Why would you do that to a salad?!

And Yes. Super Dirt Cakes are delicious. It is crushed Oreos to make the dirt, whipped cream cheese icing and gummy worms.

I hate lime jello. It's my least favorite flavor. I had too much of it as a kid.

Because it looks perfect xD?
Ohh crushed Oreos sounds tasty! This reminds me--once in kindergarten there was a play where two kids onstage ate "dirt" out of a bucket. I'd guessed they were eating mashed up brownies then, but maybe it could have been super dirt cake :o.

I dislike red jell-O for that reason too xD. Never had lime jello though.