What was the fascination with Jello?

So I’m in the beginning stages of writing my second cookbook. This is the recipe gathering and testing stage. I have a fair number of recipes that I have developed over the past four or five years that I plan to include, but I’m on the lookout for sources of inspiration and new ideas to adapt. I have a lot of cookbooks and I love to relax by casually leafing through them. For the past couple of evenings, I have been reading one that I haven’t looked at in a very long time. This one is kind of a family heirloom: “A Kitchen Happening*” compiled by the St. Peter’s Hospital Auxiliary group in 1976, which I think is probably some sort of women’s charitable fundraising group. At the bottom of the title page is the explanation for the asterisk in the title: “*We Knead the Dough.”

Ha!

Anyway, my grandma was a member of the Auxiliary and contributed some recipes to the book. I wasn’t able to immediately locate her recipes, although I bet if I asked my mom she’d know. I have to say, though, I was pretty hard-pressed to find anything in this book that I would consider eating, let alone testing and adapting for my own cookbook. I guess the 1970s were an era when “Italian” in the title of a recipe meant that you used a can of tomato soup and a chopped green pepper, and where anything with soy sauce had to be called “Oriental.” Spices other than salt and pepper, and ethnic food of any kind, were just emerging in mainstream America, and still had a long way to go.

I thought I’d transcribe a couple of really… interesting… recipes here for your gastronomical reading pleasure. Enjoy!

Green Jello Salad

1 pkg. lime jello
1 cup boiling water
1 cup (small can) pineapple
1/2 cup canned milk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbl. horseradish
3/4 cup nut meats

Dissolve jello in boiling water. add can of pineapple and juice. Cool. Mix rest of ingredients and fold into jello.

Tuna Souffle Salad

1 pkg. lemon jello (4-oz.)
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup cold water
1 Tbls. lemon juice
1/2 cup real mayonnaise
1 can tuna
3/4 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup sliced stuffed olives
2 Tbls. chopped pimientoes
1/2 tsp. grated onions
1/4 tsp. salt

Dissolve jello in hot water. Add cold water, lemon juice, mayonnaise and salt. Blend well with rotary beater. Pour into tray and quick freeze 20 minutes. Turn mixture into bowl and whip with rotary beater until fluffy. Fold in remaining ingredients. Pour into 1 quart mold. Chill until firm and garnish. Great with hot rolls! Serves 6.

Now, to the credit of this book, there are maybe only twenty recipes for varying types of gelled concoctions, so it’s not like the 1950s when Jello was KING and half a book might be devoted to the art of apsic. I had to print two of the more disturbing ones here, though, as a representative sample. I can’t figure out how anyone ever thought it was a good idea to mix fruit jello with fish, celery, mayonnaise, pickles, onions, or any other decidedly savory ingredient. My rule is that Jello should be sweet and adulterated only by fruit, if absolutely necessary. (Kind of like my rule that bagels and cream cheese always must be either plain or savory, never sweet. I have few food rules, but these two are pretty important.)

Mrs. Pat Lewis submitted this recipe that made me laugh out loud. Mrs. Lewis is spunky!

Half Peach Stuffed with Cottage Cheese

Place on lettuce leaf. I’m not going to explain that. I will say that I put this right on the dinner plate with the rest of the luncheon. If you are serving the shrimp, I forget the cottage cheese and add more pieces of fruit.

And last but not least, something that sounds positively horrible:

Green Pig

1 cup chopped celery
Grated onion
1/3 cup sour cream
1 jar salted cashews
1 pkg. frozen peas

Add at the last minute, 1 pkg. frozen peas. Serve on lettuce.

Not everything in this book is this bad. Really, there are a few recipes that I would almost consider trying, if it weren’t for the fact that I have a lot of other really good cookbooks and great recipes from Mom and Grandma, and, you know, not exactly endless amounts of free time. Still, I love this book. It’s a lot of fun to look through.