Reminiscing: Joys of Jell-O

Bravo to those of you brave enough to join me again after that last vomit inducing post. This is my dream come true--an entire cookbook dedicated to Jell-O recipes (and I have more where this one came from). Welcome to the Joys of Jell-O.

This is a great start. I believe that these desserts were made for Rainbow Brite's birthday by the Sprites.

I'm a sucker for anything that comes out of a mold:

I have to say that this recipe for "Crown Jewel Dessert" looks like a lot of work to end up with something that looks like giant chunks of broken glass folded into whipped cream:

This one doesn't look that bad, but I'm trying to imagine the textures at play here: ice cream, Jell-O, and gum drops all at once?



Maybe this would look more appetizing if it were a color photo? Maybe not...


I find things suspended in clear matter quite disconcerting. It's like the time I used clear caulking around my windows and it looked like there were giant gaps even though I knew everything was sealed. I had to scrape it out and try again with brown caulking.

I could be down with the two on the left, but that purple pie looks awful. That is the color of badly dyed old lady nursing home hair, which, thankfully, neither of my grandmothers have.

Avocado pie--need I say more? I think there is a reason this one isn't in color...

The texture combination of the "Frosty Melon" really grosses me out:

That avocado ring looks awful, but can you imagine eating the "Citrus Surprise" for breakfast, as they suggest?

More crap suspended in clear matter, this time the scrumptious sounding apple-tuna-Jell-O combination:

Do you think they served this at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance on Back to the Future?

Talk about cornea-searing:

Ewewewewewewew! "Barbecue Cubes"!!! As if the idea of barbecue flavored gelatin isn't bad enough, here they suggest serving it with shrimp and grapefruit! This is going to give me nightmares.

Could someone please explain the appeal of perfectly good salad ingredients suspended in gelatin and molded into a weird shape? Why did people like this in the 50s and 60s? Is it actually good or did people just want to experiment with Jell-O technology?

"Chicken Mousse." Ugh. I like how they fill the ring with potato salad and feel that is a great meal to serve to unsuspecting family members or guests. Also, I like that there are variations for "Ham Mousse," "Salmon Mousse," and "Tuna Mousse." How about filling the center with "Barbecue Cubes"? Wouldn't that be tasty? If you served the chicken mousse with the potato salad and barbecue cubes, you could have a whole Jell-O picnic!

"Ring-Around-the-Tuna" a.k.a. "Ecto Cooler Salad."

Those are not vegetables floating around in gelatin. That is ham and cheese. Can you imagine? Again, a color photo would probably be even worse, so I understand the use of black and white for this one.

More "molded" dishes:

Just in case you're interested in making any of these recipes and don't have the appropriate mold, you can probably still send for these. I wonder if the same prices still apply?

If you loved this all Jell-O post, just wait. I've got more coming right up!