JELL-O: A solid favorite over the years

It's cheap. It's refreshing. It's easy.

It's JELL-O, the all-American dessert that is as at home in soup kitchens as it is in the White House.

How long has it been since you selected a box of your favorite color and flavor and turned the magic powder inside into a giggly gelatin? If you lived in Salt Lake City or Grand Rapids, Mich., the answer probably would be yesterday or today. According to Kraft Foods, those cities are the markets with the highest consumption per household of JELL-O gelatin.

But a casual survey in Toledo indicated that while JELL-O is remembered fondly, it's not being made regularly.

That was the conclusion from asking people at a South Toledo beauty shop, restaurant, library, and supermarket this question: "How do you feel about JELL-O?" They quickly remembered their grandmother's gelatin salad with shredded carrots and cabbage, or the one that was brought to family dinners with pineapple and cottage cheese. Plain red gelatin was an after-school treat. Tomato aspic was recalled as a classy women's lunch dish.

When she is dieting, Dimensions beauty shop stylist Patty Piasecki pretends she is eating an ice cream sundae by making sugar-free gelatin with fruit, scooping it with an ice cream scoop, and adding whipped topping and pecans. Margaret Mazur at the Holland Library puts ricotta balls in lemon gelatin for a quick, easy diet treat. Motel housekeeper Jeri Davis likes to layer red JELL-O, whipped cream, and fresh fruit in small dishes. Blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries are her preferences, she said.

Why make it when you can buy it packaged in the store, some people observed.

Joan Branks today shares her family's favorite salad recipe that the grandchildren look forward to and one that goes well with turkey or ham. It is unusual because the ingredients are cooked before Cool Whip is folded in. JELL-O far predates the convenient whipped topping, but now it is frequently used in gelatin recipes. When I asked Ms. Branks while I was trying her recipe what dish she makes it in, she said, "If it's for company I use a pretty bowl."

That versatility in the making and presentation of JELL-O is another reason for its staying power over the years.

You are sure to be served plain JELL-O in the hospital, and in the days when restaurants included dessert with the meal, it was often JELL-O made with fruit cocktail.

Several young respondents weren't interested in gelatin salads, but preferred instead to talk about shooters, the fun chug-a-lug treat made in a mini cup with JELL-O and juice or liquor. Cranberry vodka with cranberry JELL-O and raspberry vodka and matching gelatin were recommendations. A new online feature, JELL-O Lounge, features recipes that include a small amount of alcohol.

Peter Cooper had more than engines on his mind in 1845. Besides inventing the Tom Thumb locomotive, Mr. Cooper got a patent to make a gelatin dessert. The name was Sparkling Granulated Calves Foot Gelatine. (Gelatin is essentially boiled and colored animal skins.)

Pearl Wait, a cough syrup maker in LeRoy, N.Y., took over the Cooper patent and added color and flavor to the gelatin. His wife got into the act by coming up with the name that has never lost marketing impact and has become generic for gelatin.

The first flavors were strawberry, raspberry, orange, and lemon. May Wait may have thought gelatin started with a J or used J because it had to jell before it was eaten; hence the Jell and not Gel. As for the O at the end, it was a popular usage then. Grain-O was a cereal-based coffee substitute.

JELL-O has always had intriguing advertising. In 1903, when chocolate and cherry flavors were introduced, the JELL-O girl was added to packages. An earlier jingle puts children in the market with this ad: "We don't get any more whippings! Our mama makes JELL-O for us and we don't have to get into her jelly jars any more."

One of May Wait's first recipes using the product she named was: 1 six-ounce package of lime gelatin, 2 cups sliced grapes, and 1/2 cup walnuts, made as directed. She made it in a ring mold and served it on lettuce leaves.

Gelatin molds can be colorful crowns of culinary creation or they can be a disaster if the gelatin does not slide out perfectly. It is wise to follow the directions. Today molds are as easily found in antique shops as they are in department stores. Holiday molds are sold on the JELL-O brand web site at www.jello.com. that also has recipes. Today's recipes are not for molds, but make use of ordinary kitchen cupboard glassware.

Mary Alice Powell is a retired Blade food editor.

Contact her at: mpowell@theblade.com

41.05765 -106.0132

Gelatin-Filled Melon Wedges. Enlarge

It's cheap. It's refreshing. It's easy. It's JELL-O, the all-American dessert that is as at home in soup kitchens as it is in the White House. How long has it been since you selected a box of your favorite color and flavor and turned the magic powder inside into a giggly gelatin? If you lived in Salt Lake City or Grand Rapids, Mich., the answer probably would be yesterday or today.