[Potironette]

Has anyone made/eaten them?
Reading about the 20th century, and bumped into these Jell-O foods:



Having seen a lot of them, I'm tempted to make one xD

[Coda]

My mom used to make them ALL THE TIME. I never thought about them being "20th century" food.

Then again, I'm not used to thinking about the 20th century being a different time period.

[Potironette]

Well, it's only 17 years into the 21st century xD.

Seems like it was really popular :o

[Coda]

It was. You could be certain to see a jello salad of some sort at any big gathering in the 80s and early 90s. (I assume it was probably true in the 70s too; I don't know how far back it goes.)

The thing is, Potironette, you don't REMEMBER the 20th century. Meanwhile, 17 years ISN'T EVEN HALF OF MY LIFE YET. (It will be in a couple months... ._. )

[Potironette]

Yep, the 20th century isn't even part of my life x'D. It's history to me!

It's kind of interesting thinking about how people from then are alive today, especially since I've never learned/thought of recent history until now.

Imagining Jell-O salad from my perspective, it seems like a really weird food. But seeing that people did eat that a lot, it must have been pretty tasty :o

[Gallagher]

More easy than tasty, I think. Kinda a set it and forget it kind of food. Bleh.

[Potironette]

Convenient and fashionable. Seems reasonable xD!

[Gallagher]

Well, I guess my problem with them is that they're usually pretty heavy on mayo, as are the types of salads they're based on. I'm not a fan of mayo-heavy salads. Except egg salad, but I can't really imagine a jello that would go well with egg salad. Icky icky, bleh! No!

[Potironette]

I hadn't known the Jell-O salads had mayo on them too o_o
I did see a bunch of recipes that asked for mayo but
Looking back at a recipe, I hadn't noticed the mayo + sugary gelatin pairings. (It's a 1911 recipe, I haven't gotten later into the century yet)

[Gallagher]

Yeeeeah, I like my mayo on sandwiches and not much else. Especially not with my jello, haha.

[Coda]

I... have never once seen a jello salad with mayo in it. O.o It's always been jello with fruit and/or nuts and/or shredded carrots in it, sometimes chopped up and served with whipped cream.

[Gallagher]

I've easily seen more with than without. Even the example in the first post there calls for mayo in it.

[Coda]

Regional thing, maybe? At least in Kansas we didn't do the savory jello salads. They were all sweet sides or desserts.

And the jello salad I can buy at the store here in California is red jello cubes mixed with whipped cream.

[Den]

only jell-o salad I've had has had fruit in it. and I hear you, Coda. but for me, half my life being in the 21st century happened three years ago.

[Coda]

That's because you're younger than me, Den. ;) This is old-man Coda shaking his cane here.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Originally Posted by Coda

And the jello salad I can buy at the store here in California is red jello cubes mixed with whipped cream.

Those you could get up here too, though I don't recall actually seeing many of them in the past few years. They were generally all red jello or a mix of red, green, and orange, I think.

We were looking through old gelatin meal things and there is some crazy stuff. We were so fascinated with it all we actually thought about having a 70's themed party to try and make some of this stuff.

Imagine this: entire loaf of spam, (or some pressed meat thing), hollowed out with some manner of lime jello concoction on the inside (it was always lime jello according to my step-mother, because flavourless wasn't really a thing), cover the whole thing in some manner of mayo sauce thing and decorations, serve on a platter and slice. The jello creations looked so elaborate that I can't imagine they would be in any way convenient to make.

Anyone for jello tuna?? Courtesy of a Buzzfeed article I spotted while google image searching "1970s jello recipes" just now.