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• What exactly is Jell-O? According to the original 1845 patent, it is a “transparent concentrated or solidified jelly containing all the ingredients fitting it for table use, in a portable form, and requiring only the addition of a prescribed quantity of hot water to dissolve it, when it may be poured into glasses or molds and when cold will be fit for use.” If that didn’t whet your appetite, I don’t know what would!
• Other things that have gelatin include marshmallow, the shells of hard and soft capsules for medicine, and paintballs. And to refresh you memory on what gelatin is … “The raw materials used in the production of gelatin are from healthy animals and include cattle bone, cattle hides and fresh, frozen pigskins.” Mmmm.
There are plenty of uses for Jell-o, including Art. Artist Liz Hickock makes Jell-O architecture. Jell-O can also be used for espionage.
• Jell-O vs humans: On March 17, 1993, technicians at St. Jerome hospital in Batavia test a bowl of lime Jell-O with an EEG machine and confirm the earlier testing by Dr. Adrian Upton that a bowl of wiggly Jell-O has brain waves identical to those of adult men and women. Jell-O has also been used as a cancer therapy.
• From the Annals of Bringing people together: During the 1920s, immigrants entering Ellis Island in New York City were served Jell-O on arrival as a way for the people to say “Welcome to America!”
• Jell-O is even a friend-maker in space. Shannon Lucid, an astronaut on a 140 day mission aboard the Russian Mir space station in 1996 kept track of time by wearing pink socks and eating Jell-O on Sundays. She shared the snack with her Russian crewmates for Easter and soon they all began eating Jell-O every Sunday.
• There used to be an all-Jell-O restaurant in Atlanta and I never knew! “The restaurant, Hello, I’m Gellatin, has 20 dishes on the menu, every one made with Jell-O. ” To be honest, I don’t even know how this is possible.
• And of course, no Jell-O post would be complete without a word from spokesman Bill Cosby:
• Need more Jell-O? Buy Jell-O molds or visit the Jell-O Museum.
• My mother used to pack me a Jell-O cup for dessert every day in my lunchbox for years (what can I say, I’m a creature of habit). What about you, Flossers? Any Jell-O memories or recipes to share?
Hungry for more? Venture into the Dietribes archive.
‘Dietribes’ appears every other Wednesday. Food photos taken by Johanna Beyenbach. You might remember that name from our post about her colorful diet.
Comments (31)
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A taste-test, done in the 1950s, found that if people could not see the color of the Jello, they couldn’t tell what flavor it was. On a lark, I re-created a taste test at work. I had six flavors of Jell-o, and 23 blindfolded tasters. The most anybody got correct was 3, and only about 4 people got that many right. It was really fun to do, and a great day-waster.
posted by Rachel on 2-25-2009 at 12:42 pm
When I was a junior, our high school put on a Jell-O Wrestling fundraiser. I don’t remember for what we were raising funds, but it ranks up there on my “most fun I’ve ever had” list. Now you’ve inspired me to go dig up pictures. (My tag-team Jell-O wrestled to a hard-fought draw.)
posted by Jason English on 2-25-2009 at 12:47 pm
Had an instructor at Univ of Arizona who supposedly co-wrote the Jello Cookbook way back when. Whether he did or not made no difference as he was one of the best instructors I had (he was not a professor).
posted by Hurricane on 2-25-2009 at 12:48 pm
I just started eating Jell-O everyday (thank you South Beach). It’s only 10 calories, and it won’t kill me. I had a sheet of Jell-O for my birthday “cake” last year.
posted by Jinxie on 2-25-2009 at 12:54 pm
When visiting family in Rochester, NY we would always be amazed that Jello was served WITH dinner and not AFTER. My mother would give us dirty looks if we tried to take any and say we’d eaten it as our vegetable.
When I went up there to college I had to explain this strange phenomena to my roommates who were confused as to why the Jello was on the dinner buffet and not the dessert buffet.
It further confirmed that past the northern Westchester border people in NYS got weird. Don’t get me started with mustard on hamburgers and ketchup on hot dogs.
posted by Hannah on 2-25-2009 at 1:05 pm
Hannah, that’s funny. My wife is from Rochester, NY and she and everyone in her family would never touch Jello with a ten foot pole. She’s never even let any of our kids taste it.
posted by sysmg on 2-25-2009 at 1:13 pm
“I just started eating Jell-O everyday (thank you South Beach). It’s only 10 calories, and it won’t kill me. I had a sheet of Jell-O for my birthday “cake” last year.”
Oh that’s sad.
posted by Hannah on 2-25-2009 at 1:13 pm
Hannah,
Mustard on hamburgers and ketchup on hot dogs (with mustard also) is the only way to go! Mayo–disgusting!
posted by Wendy on 2-25-2009 at 1:19 pm
For my Science Fair project in 5th grade, I did an experiment similar to the one Rachel mentioned. I tested the ability of ~90 5th and 6th graders to see if they could distiguish what flavor of Jell-O they were eating. To add a twist, there were three groups of students. One was the control, and just ate the samples and guessed what they were eating. The second group had to hold there nose the entire time they were tasting, thus eliminating smell. And the third group was blindfolded during the tasting.
The results were about what you expect from something as bland as Jell-O. Taste and smell had no bearing on the results. The blindfolded group had no idea what they were eating. And for the control and nose-holders, they could tell the difference between lemon, lime and orange but demonstrated only a slight ability to differentiate between strawberry, cherry and raspberry (all red back then, I think raspberry might be blue these days).
Overall, it was well-received by all involved. I won the fair and moved on to the district level (where I was slaughtered by kids that had obvious parental help), and the entire 5th and 6th grade class got as much Jell-O as they wanted.
John
posted by John on 2-25-2009 at 1:26 pm
It’s just … the texture! I can’t! Something about that gelatinous solid suddenly splitting and dissolving beneath my teeth *SHUDDER* I can’t eat Turkish Delight for the same reason. *Double Shudder*
posted by Kikadee on 2-25-2009 at 1:32 pm
Just to confirm; rasberry jello is indeed now blue (light blue)
posted by beth on 2-25-2009 at 2:01 pm
i taught my best friends daughter how to suck jell-o though her nose with a straw when she was 4…. we cant take her out anymore where there is jell-o being served.. but it still funny to watch at home… :)
posted by Jennifer on 2-25-2009 at 2:13 pm
Hey, I’m from Rochester (though I no longer live there). Yes, we may eat Jell-O with our meals and reverse the mustard and ketchup rules, but if you think that’s strange, you should try a “garbage plate”. Disgusting and delicious at the same time!
posted by A on 2-25-2009 at 2:25 pm
I don’t have a problem with Jello, but I won’t touch any kind of aspic dish (also made with gelatin).
posted by Jason! on 2-25-2009 at 2:52 pm
i remember 1-2-3 jello came out when i was in 1st grade. it didnt last very long but i remember leaving the fridge door open and watching the layers appear
posted by beth on 2-25-2009 at 3:03 pm
Jell-O shots. Great fun at parties. Not for the kiddies, of course.
posted by Judy on 2-25-2009 at 3:04 pm
Jell-O wrestling!!
posted by Cheezy on 2-25-2009 at 3:39 pm
My buddy calls it “God’s Candy”, and I’m not sure I want to tell him its made from cow parts, if he’s not already aware, it could put him off Jell-O.
I’m not as big a fan as I used to be. I find that Jell-O picks up flavors of other foods sometimes if you put them on the same plate. Now I always seem to taste beef when eating it, probably from a pot roast or something my Jell-O meandered into as a child.
posted by Jonny on 2-25-2009 at 4:27 pm
Sparkling Jell-O is the best. It’s made with carbonated water instead of regular. While they have special flavors for it, I think you can just substitute the carbonated water with the regular Jell-O too.
My favortie jell-o product of all time would have to be Pudding Pops, though. Damn, those were good.
posted by Leah on 2-25-2009 at 4:50 pm
No matter how hard I try, I cannot eat Jello without gagging.
It’s the texture. I barely get down a mouthful and i’m dry heaving it.
posted by holly on 2-25-2009 at 5:04 pm
How funny, we were just talking about Jell-O at lunch today and how it was made out of various cow parts. I’ll eat it, but I never go out of my way to make any.
posted by CK on 2-25-2009 at 5:53 pm
I made Jello jigglers for the first time in probably 5 years this past Sunday.
posted by Vickey on 2-25-2009 at 7:14 pm
My favorite Jell-o memory is the “Jell-o Brain” my mother made a few years back for Halloween. It’s made in a brain mold and she used peach Jell-O and chocolate pudding to get the right color. As you might imagine, hardly anyone at the party at any of it. Before we sliced it, I don’t think anyone believed it was edible. Click my name to see an approximation of what it looked like.)
posted by Rioux on 2-25-2009 at 8:00 pm
My favorite Jell-o memory is the “Jell-o Brain” my mother made a few years back for Halloween. It’s made in a brain mold and she used peach Jell-O and chocolate pudding to get the right color. As you might imagine, hardly anyone at the party at any of it. Before we sliced it, I don’t think anyone believed it was edible. (Click my name to see an approximation of what it looked like.)
posted by Rioux on 2-25-2009 at 8:02 pm
synchronized swimmers use unflavored jello to keep their hair up in the water (hairspray is soluble). i still can’t eat it.
posted by swmr on 2-25-2009 at 8:08 pm
Leah- I LOVED sparkling jell-o! I’ve often wondered if you could just use sparkling water or soda or something instead. I just remember i was in middle school when it came out and LOVED the sparkling white grape flavor.
posted by Kelly J on 2-25-2009 at 9:02 pm
I rarely eat the stuff, but one of my fondest memories of my grandmother has to do with jello. for breakfast every morning she would eat red jello mixed with cottage cheese on toast. probably one of the most discusting things i have ever seen, i still cant eat jello or cottage cheese (seperately of course) without thinking of her.
posted by bethany on 2-25-2009 at 9:10 pm
When we cleaned out my grandma’s pantry after she passed away, we came across the jello cookbook and found a recipe called “ring around the tuna.” A jello ring with tuna fish in the middle. No joke. We promptly tossed the recipe book.
posted by Lu on 2-25-2009 at 10:22 pm
My old roommate (who was notorious for always screwing around and causing mischief) once scolded my friend and I for tossing Jello so it stuck to the ceiling at an all-you-can-eat buffet (we may have been slightly intoxicated when this happened). It was great…the Jello was perfectly sticky to stay on the ceiling…good times!
posted by Martin on 2-26-2009 at 2:02 am
I associate Jell-O with being sick. While I don’t generally find it offensive, even if I was never crazy about the texture, I can’t eat it unless I am too sick to hold anything else down.
Unless we’re talking Jell-O shots. Then it all changes.
posted by MN on 2-26-2009 at 7:30 am
in my dorm cafeteria there is a group of people that refer to me as “red jell-o girl.” it stems from merely one day, when there was nothing good to eat, so i got a big bowl of red jell-o. they acted like it was ridiculous, which it was….but, more importantly, it was delicious. now i get a bowl of it every time they have it, if only to maintain the sweet nickname.
also, red and blue jell-o shots on election night should really be a requirement for all…
posted by paige on 2-26-2009 at 3:23 pm