Making, and Eating, the 1950s' Most Nauseating Jell-O Soaked Recipes (Collector's Weekly)

Including...

I think there was such a proliferation of advertising that it created this mindset that, hey, I can use Jell-O as an easy dessert or an easy lunch. I don't have to mess around with it a lot. If you've looked through any stash of vintage cookbooks, invariably there'll be at least one Jell-O recipe book in it because everybody owned one.

It's really hard to say why the savory Jell-O salad became something. I was talking to my dad about this the other day, and he said it became this crazy thing in his family where every holiday, all my aunts would try to outdo each other with these fantastic, multi-layered gelatin molds.

Collectors Weekly: Were these served as desserts or side dishes?

Clark: They were everything. Some came as desserts, some as side dishes, and some were main-course stuff. It was freaky.


Presentation was a major feature of many mid-century recipes for entertaining, as showcased with these cracker kabobs a la grapefruit.

I really think at the time, their idea of food artistry was very different than ours, which is evident in all of the pictures from that era. I think that at the time, this fancy centerpiece was considered the epitome of class. I don't know if you've seen Charles Phoenix's weenie tree? Basically you take a Styrofoam tree, wrap it in tin foil, and stick little hot dogs on sticks into this tree and your guests were supposed to pull the hot dogs off and dip them in the sauces and eat them.

Think of things like the lamb cake or the gelatin mold. The idea of having this big, edible centerpiece was really popular back then, which I notice in a lot of cookbooks.

I haven't really heard a lot of food historians talk about this, but I've found that food mixed into Jell-O stays fresher much longer than if you have it by itself.

Collectors Weekly: Whoa, how long are you talking about, like weeks?

Clark: Like days. For example, Perfection Salad is basically coleslaw inside of lemon or lime Jell-O, so it's got cabbage and carrots and all kinds of stuff. But the cabbage will stay fresh for over a week. If you take a bite of it, it's still crunchy. My husband, Tom, tries all this. He's a chemist, so he'll keep tasting it long, long after I'm done with it. But if you make regular coleslaw and put dressing on it, the cabbage becomes soggy after three days. And after five days, you're not going to eat it.

We've done a lot of different Jell-O stuff and noticed that freshness is basically extended when you encase things in Jell-O. We've done cakes covered with gelatin, and the cake would still be moist after a week and a half. We made sandwiches with gelatin, open-faced sandwiches with flavored gelatin poured over the top, which was supposed to be like mayo. I thought it was going to be disastrous. Tom wolfed them down. He's like, "These are really good and the bread isn't soggy." I'm like, "Are you kidding me?" Two days later, they were still edible.

I don't know if being frugal and using up leftovers was part of the Jell-O trend, putting them in gelatin and then trying to force them down that way. But that's my theory.

More at the link, as well as lovely pictures. Anyone here remember salad flavored (savory) Jell-Os? As pictured in an ad: mixed vegetable, celery, seasoned tomato, and Italian salad were options. Makes more sense than using the fruit flavors for those savory recipes... and a bit more interesting than plain gelatin.

~ Becky in Tucson