Great article. I'm 83 and grew up on Jell-O salads in WV. Raised my 3 children loving them also.
I make cranberry orange relish and freeze it to have anytime of the year to make salad anytime. Raspberry Jell-O, cranberry relish, crushed pineapple, celery and walnuts. My grandchildren like it as much as I do. Also Lime Jell-O with cream cheese, celery, crushed pineapple and pecans. Jell-O salads are a staple at church dinners here in NC where we have lived for 25 years.
May 11, 2022·edited May 11, 2022Liked by Anne Byrn
This was absolutely one of my favorite newsletters to read. Of course, I may be partial since you used my mother-in-law's Bing Cherry Jello Salad recipe that she inherited from her mother-in-law, Eugenia Dunn.
You wouldn't believe the response I received from family members who read this piece. "Gramma Gene lives on" and "Thanks so much for this. Brings back so many wonderful memories. I'll have to get out the mold!" and "Here's the recipe I have in mom's old cigar box of recipes" and "I have your mom's handwritten one and typed it up to share. Maybe that's why yours is typed. Your mom's had stains of bing cherries on it where I dripped on it making it once" and "I think it is marvelous that it brings such memories to all of us."
Literally we texted back and forth with nine family member all morning long.
I, personally, can't wait to make this jello salad again and I don't care what any of my snooty, foodie friends say LOL — I love jello salads.
I always remember my mom making a pink Jell-O concoction for family reunions. I think she mixed Jell-O, probably strawberry, then mixed it with Cool-Whip. She used a special Tupperware mold for Jell-O salads. It was a favorite.
In high school and college, when I worked the salad bar at the grocery store, we would receive premade Jell-O salads (in a plastic bag fit into a box), and one was close, but not the same. Those premade mixtures came in several versions. **Except for the cut vegetables and fruit, nothing was homemade. Actually, we did make the tuna salad homemade. Even the ambrosia was premade.**
May 11, 2022·edited May 11, 2022Liked by Anne Byrn
Such a fun read. It's interesting reading the comments how jello has made its way through every generation. In the 1990's we ate a lot of plain (red) cherry jello without anything else in it. The waiting for the jello to set in the fridge was "torture" for my sister and I. I remember seeing more elaborate jello fruit salads at baby showers and church lady parties back then (Central California). I think when the Jell-O pudding cups and regualr jello single serve containers came out my Mom started giving us those instead of making the jello at home---those single serve ones never tasted the same and we eventually stopped asking for them in our lunch bags. As an adult I've only used Jell-o pudding mixes in a few dessert recipes and a horribly mixed jello shot was probably the last time I've had jello (probably 12+ years ago now-LOL). I really want to make some fruit filled jello for my 15 month old nephews now and see what they think! Thanks for the good memories and inspiration.
This definitely brought me back to my childhood in Southwest Virginia! Jell-O salads were staples at celebrations hosted by both of my grandmothers, although as a kid I was more enticed by the much more simple Jell-O Jigglers that I begged my mom to make every week. Those little molds were great kid-centered marketing on Jell-O’s part.
Your description of tediously flipping the mold over onto a plate to slide out the Jell-O reminded me of how tortilla de patata is flipped from the pan onto a serving plate here in Spain, albeit with (usually) much neater results for the salad!
I had never considered the history of molded salad and it’s interesting to view it through the lens of what was expected of women at the time. “A salad at last in control of itself.” What a powerful quote.
Lots of family jello memories for me! Our daughters especially liked one made with strawberry jello, applesauce, frozen strawberries, sometimes bananas & toasted pecans. 1950's growing up favorite: lime with cheddar cheese, pineapple & whipped cream. The black cherry recipe & Coke salad - still make these. I use jello to thicken my holiday fresh cranberry sauce.
And Anne - I made your Dinner Doctor "Home-Style Macaroni and Cheese", p. 263, yesterday. I was cooking for a family of 5 in the assistance program our church does for homeless families. The recipe was super easy, absolutely delicious! I used rotini because it's my favorite pasta for mac & cheese. Thanks for all the good hints!
My grandmother used to have a cupboard full of all shapes and sizes of jello molds; I'm sorry to say I have no idea what might have become of them. My only mold is from a Tupperware party I went to in the 70's and it's a 2-for, the large ring plus the center insert which on it's own makes a small decorative tower. I also have a Jello desserts cookbook from the same era with recipes that use puddings as well as others that use the gelatin, I've tried making quite a few using my molds and they have all looked and tasted surprisingly good.
I have a Jello cookbook from the early 1960s that was my mom's probably just after she and my dad were married. There are some pretty gross looking things in there! I remember choosing a dish of Jello cubes as a kid when we would go eat at Picadilly. One of my favorites is one my grandmother used to make...black cherry jello with apples and pecans.
As a lifelong Utahn (although not Mormon), jello's always been around. Last year we got on a kick of making it a couple of times a month and it's been so fun! I'm hoping to find a recipe for "hangover salad". It had canned bing cherries, port wine, and I think it was black cherry jello. Does anyone know what goes into that? Thanks!
This is such a relief! Jello-O molds have been somewhat of a guilty pleasure. I serve one at almost every party I've had because they're festive and, after the first snicker from some guests, everyone devours it and get talking about the last time they had one, usually made by moms and aunts. It's a little like Proust's madeleine. But my all time favorite is old-fashioned wine jelly made simply with wine and unflavored gelatin. It looks just like cherry Jell-O but tastes all grown up.
1977 was the year of "the great Jello" awakening for me. I was pregnant with my last child, John-David. I couldn't get enough of Jello molded salads. Black Cherry and Coke Salad with pecans. Lime, cottage cheese, walnuts and Pineapple salad. Tomato Bloody Mary Salad with chopped celery.. still love Jello. My son is now 45 years old and he laughs when I tell him, he was a healthy baby. I ate Jello Salads every week while I carried my son all through the nine months.
Wow, another time warp story today. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the evolution of Jell-O/congealed salads, which I haven’t eaten since the very early 80s. My late mother was a military officer’s wife and had to frequently participate in luncheons with other officers’ wives. She made a beautiful congealed chicken salad one time for a luncheon she hosted. Luckily for me, I got to partake of the leftovers for dinner that night. I hadn’t thought about such a delight until your post today. Thank you.
I loved this article! (and admire your writing skills). I’m going to be 80 in a few months and l miss the popularity of jello salads, both sweet and savory. They used to be a staple at any holiday meal but my grandchildren won’t even eat them! I’m a California native but my family roots are in UT so I’m well aware of the reputation that jello still has there. Along with Funeral Potatoes!
Great article. I'm 83 and grew up on Jell-O salads in WV. Raised my 3 children loving them also.
I make cranberry orange relish and freeze it to have anytime of the year to make salad anytime. Raspberry Jell-O, cranberry relish, crushed pineapple, celery and walnuts. My grandchildren like it as much as I do. Also Lime Jell-O with cream cheese, celery, crushed pineapple and pecans. Jell-O salads are a staple at church dinners here in NC where we have lived for 25 years.
This was absolutely one of my favorite newsletters to read. Of course, I may be partial since you used my mother-in-law's Bing Cherry Jello Salad recipe that she inherited from her mother-in-law, Eugenia Dunn.
You wouldn't believe the response I received from family members who read this piece. "Gramma Gene lives on" and "Thanks so much for this. Brings back so many wonderful memories. I'll have to get out the mold!" and "Here's the recipe I have in mom's old cigar box of recipes" and "I have your mom's handwritten one and typed it up to share. Maybe that's why yours is typed. Your mom's had stains of bing cherries on it where I dripped on it making it once" and "I think it is marvelous that it brings such memories to all of us."
Literally we texted back and forth with nine family member all morning long.
I, personally, can't wait to make this jello salad again and I don't care what any of my snooty, foodie friends say LOL — I love jello salads.
Look what popped up on Atlas Obsura today. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/aspics-jello-salad?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=5eae71b627-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_05_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-5eae71b627-70561697&mc_cid=5eae71b627&mc_eid=c24eaaa1e5
I always remember my mom making a pink Jell-O concoction for family reunions. I think she mixed Jell-O, probably strawberry, then mixed it with Cool-Whip. She used a special Tupperware mold for Jell-O salads. It was a favorite.
In high school and college, when I worked the salad bar at the grocery store, we would receive premade Jell-O salads (in a plastic bag fit into a box), and one was close, but not the same. Those premade mixtures came in several versions. **Except for the cut vegetables and fruit, nothing was homemade. Actually, we did make the tuna salad homemade. Even the ambrosia was premade.**
Such a fun read. It's interesting reading the comments how jello has made its way through every generation. In the 1990's we ate a lot of plain (red) cherry jello without anything else in it. The waiting for the jello to set in the fridge was "torture" for my sister and I. I remember seeing more elaborate jello fruit salads at baby showers and church lady parties back then (Central California). I think when the Jell-O pudding cups and regualr jello single serve containers came out my Mom started giving us those instead of making the jello at home---those single serve ones never tasted the same and we eventually stopped asking for them in our lunch bags. As an adult I've only used Jell-o pudding mixes in a few dessert recipes and a horribly mixed jello shot was probably the last time I've had jello (probably 12+ years ago now-LOL). I really want to make some fruit filled jello for my 15 month old nephews now and see what they think! Thanks for the good memories and inspiration.
This definitely brought me back to my childhood in Southwest Virginia! Jell-O salads were staples at celebrations hosted by both of my grandmothers, although as a kid I was more enticed by the much more simple Jell-O Jigglers that I begged my mom to make every week. Those little molds were great kid-centered marketing on Jell-O’s part.
Your description of tediously flipping the mold over onto a plate to slide out the Jell-O reminded me of how tortilla de patata is flipped from the pan onto a serving plate here in Spain, albeit with (usually) much neater results for the salad!
I had never considered the history of molded salad and it’s interesting to view it through the lens of what was expected of women at the time. “A salad at last in control of itself.” What a powerful quote.
Lots of family jello memories for me! Our daughters especially liked one made with strawberry jello, applesauce, frozen strawberries, sometimes bananas & toasted pecans. 1950's growing up favorite: lime with cheddar cheese, pineapple & whipped cream. The black cherry recipe & Coke salad - still make these. I use jello to thicken my holiday fresh cranberry sauce.
And Anne - I made your Dinner Doctor "Home-Style Macaroni and Cheese", p. 263, yesterday. I was cooking for a family of 5 in the assistance program our church does for homeless families. The recipe was super easy, absolutely delicious! I used rotini because it's my favorite pasta for mac & cheese. Thanks for all the good hints!
My grandmother used to have a cupboard full of all shapes and sizes of jello molds; I'm sorry to say I have no idea what might have become of them. My only mold is from a Tupperware party I went to in the 70's and it's a 2-for, the large ring plus the center insert which on it's own makes a small decorative tower. I also have a Jello desserts cookbook from the same era with recipes that use puddings as well as others that use the gelatin, I've tried making quite a few using my molds and they have all looked and tasted surprisingly good.
I have a Jello cookbook from the early 1960s that was my mom's probably just after she and my dad were married. There are some pretty gross looking things in there! I remember choosing a dish of Jello cubes as a kid when we would go eat at Picadilly. One of my favorites is one my grandmother used to make...black cherry jello with apples and pecans.
As a lifelong Utahn (although not Mormon), jello's always been around. Last year we got on a kick of making it a couple of times a month and it's been so fun! I'm hoping to find a recipe for "hangover salad". It had canned bing cherries, port wine, and I think it was black cherry jello. Does anyone know what goes into that? Thanks!
This is such a relief! Jello-O molds have been somewhat of a guilty pleasure. I serve one at almost every party I've had because they're festive and, after the first snicker from some guests, everyone devours it and get talking about the last time they had one, usually made by moms and aunts. It's a little like Proust's madeleine. But my all time favorite is old-fashioned wine jelly made simply with wine and unflavored gelatin. It looks just like cherry Jell-O but tastes all grown up.
1977 was the year of "the great Jello" awakening for me. I was pregnant with my last child, John-David. I couldn't get enough of Jello molded salads. Black Cherry and Coke Salad with pecans. Lime, cottage cheese, walnuts and Pineapple salad. Tomato Bloody Mary Salad with chopped celery.. still love Jello. My son is now 45 years old and he laughs when I tell him, he was a healthy baby. I ate Jello Salads every week while I carried my son all through the nine months.
Wow, another time warp story today. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the evolution of Jell-O/congealed salads, which I haven’t eaten since the very early 80s. My late mother was a military officer’s wife and had to frequently participate in luncheons with other officers’ wives. She made a beautiful congealed chicken salad one time for a luncheon she hosted. Luckily for me, I got to partake of the leftovers for dinner that night. I hadn’t thought about such a delight until your post today. Thank you.
Okay, so, probably because my grandfather turned me into a massive V8 drinker... I want a slice of that tomato salad.
But, just to confirm, the sweet salads with totally sweet ingredients... are supposed to go with savoury dishes??
Love lime and cherry jello salads! They used to be a must for luncheons. Thank you!
I loved this article! (and admire your writing skills). I’m going to be 80 in a few months and l miss the popularity of jello salads, both sweet and savory. They used to be a staple at any holiday meal but my grandchildren won’t even eat them! I’m a California native but my family roots are in UT so I’m well aware of the reputation that jello still has there. Along with Funeral Potatoes!