It appears to be the new internet hobby to dig up the most disgusting 1950s jello mold dish, this one with shrimp and crab must rank high:
Did people actually eat these? :eek:
My god even the picture makes me want to vomit, forget the taste.
Its comforting to me to believe this is all a misunderstanding or something.
Aspic.
Not that particular kind, but I grew up with aspic in my Polish-American family. I love it, but most non-Eastern Europeans seems to find the whole idea disgusting. Here’s a typical example of Polish aspic (galareta), made with chicken, carrots, peas, etc.
What’s interesting to me is that apparently aspic used to be a thing here in the US, at least judging by old cookbooks from the era you’re referencing. However, I’ve never someone who admits to liking it (besides other fellow first generation folks.)
The Russian version is very tasty. Love it. Can only get it in one place here in MD and even there it is sub-par. My Mom is coming to visit soon, I will have to ask her to make it. Thanks to whomever pointed to the wiki on “aspic” - I never knew that is what it was called in English.
I like herring in aspic, but aspic is not sweet nor set jello. Well at least the aspic I have had is runny even when cold.
These dishes look like they are totally set jello molds, and some are sweet and fruit flavored(I’ve seen one calling for lime flavored jello olives and mayo among other things!) which is a whole different thing.
I’d eat that. Sounds kind of tasty.
Jellied meat and fish rock. OTOH, I loathe jell-o.
Gelatin used to be a rich person’s food before it became more widely available in the early 20th century. I suspect those recipes from the 1950s are a throwback to when gelatin was considered to be fancy.
Presented for your enjoyment - James Lilek’s Gallery of Regrettable Food.
I made chicken in aspic (i.e., poultry jell-o) once a few years ago as a challenge. My wife was a little put off by the unfamiliarity, but it tasted fine. There’s nothing inherently sweet about gelatin; it’s just a neutral medium, like polenta.
That said, I wasn’t interested enough to ever try making it again.
Aspics sound kind of awful to me, but they were good enough for state dinners during the Kennedy and Carter administrations.
(JFK Library, my bold)
And Carter served Columbia River Salmon in Aspic at a 1979 dinner marking the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty (Carter Library [pdf])
So, at one time, you could evidently have high-class aspics.
Just randomly clicking around, the third thing I clicked on was vegetables in a jello mold.
The question, “did people actually ever eat Jello molds with meat and seafood?” is totally different questions from “did people ever eat jellied anything?” Of course they ate jellied things that had been cooked in broth and bones.
But everyone comparing an aspic to a meat Jello mold is high. Jello is 80 Percent sugar.
I don’t personally know, but I have to say that the presence of meaty lime jello is prevalent enough in totally legit cookbooks over a long enough period of time that I must conclude people did in fact eat it sometimes. The longevity and ubiquity of such recipes suggests to me it wasn’t one of those food trends that marketers push out but never quite catch on with the public.
shudder
That’s nothing…Chef Boy-ar-dee catered the reception for Woodrow Wilson’s 2nd wedding!
On the plus side, if you are going to throw up, it is already the proper consistency.
Thanks for this!
I wouldn’t say poking fun at this is a “new” thing. James Lileks’s website has been up for 16 years. Since I remember the early days of his website from when the web was first becoming popular, that makes me feel old. 
I would think an aspic coating on food, like a fish, is used to hold the decorations - olives, carved vegetables, herbs - in place, to look glazed, as if under a thin layer of glass. I wouldn’t want to eat a bowl of it, it would taste like cold chewy soup, but it served a purpose in years past.
When Jello was invented, it was a big deal, of course home cooks went overboard using it in all kinds of weird combinations. Before Jello, gelatin itself was not something ordinary folks had access to.
As a kid at my southern baptist church, I used to gag at seeing the variety of jello-with-carrot-shavings-and-creamy-sauce dishes on the buffet table. They were always the last thing to go, if they went at all. Everyone sneered at the big bucket of KFC on the table, but it disappeared faster than anything alese.
I had forgotten about this website and I think I first saw it from mention here on SDMB - thanks for the link again!
The Meat Fisting At Home section had me grossed out and bursting out with laughter at the same time from his comments.
