Gelatin Breaks Out of Its Mold

As kids with strep throat, earaches, etc., we were given hot beef bouillon and hot jello to drink. In the days before gatorade, the hot jello was a good source of both protein and sugar, and the viscosity soothed the throat going down. We had a family friend whose mother made layered jello salad with alternating clear and sour-cream opaque layers in rainbow colors. It was astoundingly beautiful to a small child, and also fun to peel each thin layer off, one by one.

My grandmother’s refrigerator always, ALWAYS, contained little glass dishes of red jello with banana slices floating in them. Whenever We grandchildren visited , together or separately we would open the fridge to try to catch her out. We never did. My grandpa must have had jello everyday of his long life.

Lime jello with fruit cocktail, cream and pecans was for devades, and is now, served once a year, at Thanksgiving, in our family. Quaint, retro, and yummy, even for those who claim sophisticated palates!

I didn’t grow up in the south where what were always called “molded salads” were common and the only jello dish we knew was red with suspended fruit cocktail in it. One time, however, when our parents were traveling, we had a babysitter cooking for us who produced a yellow concoction with grated carrots, celery, and other vegetables floating in it. We children thought she had lost her mind - it was as though someone had decided to put raisins or chocolate chips in the meatloaf!

PSA: Gelatin is made by boiling skin, cartilage, and bones from slaughtered animals. It's made primarily from the dregs from the slaughterhouse floor. Appealing? I think not.

I tried to make this today. It didn't work. The gelatin wouldn't set, so I had to add triple the amount of gelatin called for in the recipe.

I must say, one of my favorite childhood memories is of strawberry flavored jello with an entire can of fruit cocktail suspended in a magical fantasy world, set and released from a copper(?) mold. A "dollop" of canned whipped cream on top. I'll be revisiting that memory with your recipe soon. Thanks, David

Would really like an update on Dexter - I think that was food critic Pete Wells’ son. He was subject of food articles by Mr. Wells for a while and he must be almost grown up now. There was an article about him and Jell-O attached to this article by Mr. Tanis and it made me wonder how he turned out...Those articles were very sweet. Hope all is well. Thanks!

for fifteen years i made pastry for the earthy crunchy groceria and for a long time the coordinator of the baking program would not allow the use of gelatin. one day i was walking through the supplement section and thought, i wonder how many of these capsules are made with gelatin? so i did some lobbying and got permission to use it. and then found out that other stores were making marshmallows with it. so i got my hands on a beef based gelatin from one of these stores and made a fruit mousse cake for a customer. when she put it on the table and removed that acetate collar the cake slumped all over the tabletop. messy. i called the company in san francisco where the gelatin was bought and was told beef gelatin had a shelf life of 6 months. this stuff was way beyond that. i switched to leaf gelatin after that mess and much prefer it, though it's not an item found in most grocery stores. chris kimball did a video on a victorian holiday meal that featured beautiful molded dishes made with bones. and there are photos on the web of dishes made with gelatin that are works of art.

Gelatin is a sadly disused ingredient in modern cooking. There are so many fine dishes with gelatin that seem to have gone from our menus. I have what I consider a truly wonderful salad/dessert with a sherry dressing that is both tart and sweet. Its base is apricot nectar, but it uses both lemon and orange jello, frozen orange juice concentrate and fresh lemon juice, along with pure gelatin, and has no added sugar. It also calls for ginger ale. It must be packed with vitamin C and collagen. Although it is obviously a product of the processed food industry, the sherry dressing takes it to a higher plane and makes it suitable for use both as a salad and a dessert. (I prefer it as dessert) The dressing consists of a custard-like mixture of egg, butter, sugar, lemon juice, and orange juice folded with whipped cream and sherry. Using gelatin seems to be a lost art today.

I admire the fascination of the two (so far) readers with jello. I admit to thinking of a jellyfish every time I saw jello.

Ha - "wonderfully retro" - not everywhere. Just came back from visiting partner's family in rural Minnesota and in every house, at every dinner, there was jello on the table. Eaten with the main course, or after. It was just always there.

I love the title of the article - clever and cute - just like jello. I grew up with this odd dessert because it was cheap, sweet, and often times filled in for dessert when money was tight for a more traditional dessert like chocolate cake or apple pie. My mother always, ALWAYS served dessert after the dinner meal. The best jello recipe I ever came across is a lemon chiffon creation. It is light, sweet yet a little tart, while it melts on one's palette. And the color looks like lemon chiffon too - a soft light pastel. For some time, jello seems to have taken a back seat and has been mildly forgotten. Thank you for running this article, especially before Thanksgiving, It is a refreshing reminder just how versatile and delicious jello is.