# Did people actually eat those jello meat/seafood/olive dishes?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 3, 2012, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630 "2012-03-03T07:53:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/21 "2012-03-04T23:57:33Z")
> [@grude](#): > > even the picture makes me want to vomit Right there with you. > [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > On the plus side, if you are going to throw up, it is already the proper consistency. šŸ˜› Only time Iā€™ve ever encountered anything remotely like this is the time my great aunt brought jello to a family dinner and it had grated cheese on top. I did not eat any. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/22 "2012-03-05T00:59:02Z")
Jellied beef tongueā€¦jellied ham hocksā€¦jellied herringā€¦salmon aspicā€¦tuna aspicā€¦these are fine eating. The fruit-flavored rubber, especially with canned froot entombed in it, is an abomination. The not found in nature colors are especially disquieting. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/23 "2012-03-05T01:55:56Z")
Check THIS out! [Weight Watchers recipe cards, circa 1974](http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards.html) I havenā€™t read this in a while, so some of the comments may be NSFW. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/24 "2012-03-05T02:08:50Z")
> [@BrassyPhrase](#): > > Check THIS out! [Weight Watchers recipe cards, circa 1974](http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards.html) > > I havenā€™t read this in a while, so some of the comments may be NSFW. I actually have a set of those, too. My mom bought them back when she first started WW and they sat, unused as far as I can tell, in the kitchen cupboard until we cleaned out the house after Mom passed away. Theyā€™re now sitting on the bookshelf in our bedroom because I canā€™t bear the thought of someday being in a position to exploit the kitsch and realizing that I threw them away a decade before. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/25 "2012-03-05T03:21:34Z")
> [@grude](#): > > 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: > > [Davis Gelatine / The Call of Cthulhull-o](http://vintage-ads.livejournal.com/3251365.html) > > 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. The recipe for spiced cherry relish on that same page actually looks pretty good. On a related note, I once picked up some seafood custard at the Chinese market. It was memorably one of the worst things I ever ate in my long history of buying bizarre foods at ethnic markets and eating them. So gelatinous and cold and fishy. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/26 "2012-03-06T03:11:32Z")
[http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards/salmonmousse.html](http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards/salmonmousse.html) Oh heavens to betsy, you take a fish, mousse it, then form the mousse into the shape of a fish? What is this I donā€™t evenā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/27 "2012-03-06T03:18:57Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > [http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards/salmonmousse.html](http://www.candyboots.com/wwcards/salmonmousse.html) > > Oh heavens to betsy, you take a fish, mousse it, then form the mousse into the shape of a fish? What is this I donā€™t evenā€¦ Itā€™s like goyfilte fishā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/28 "2012-03-06T03:20:41Z")
Oh lordy, my grandmother would make these jello things. Jello is too sweet for savory foods IMO. However, this brought to mind the most horrible Jello dish of all: [Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise](http://youtu.be/7tWuG2oPL3o) ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/29 "2012-03-06T03:54:10Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Presented for your enjoyment - James Lilekā€™s [Gallery of Regrettable Food.](http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/) In the entry on Jello: > [@](#): > > Molds! Mystic Molds! The Depression must have demolished the fine-art market, forcing many fine illustrators to resort to recipe books, and the result was this stuning array of illustrations. Take that, Thomas Kinkaid, ā€œPainter of Light.ā€ One could say also that those Jello paintings could be coming from an ancestor of J.J. Abrams. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/30 "2012-03-06T15:00:27Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > 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 wouldnā€™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. You also needed a refrigerator to do it, so it was ā€œfancyā€ and a way to show off when not everybody had one. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/31 "2012-03-06T15:21:45Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Gelatin used to be a rich personā€™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. Fruit flavored and those types of sweet gelatins, perhaps. But a traditional aspic did not require any special powdered gelatin or anything like that. You just throw in enough bones into your stock and it will gelatinize. When my mother makes aspic, itā€™s just pork hocks/feet that provide all the necessary gelatin. Meat jelly/aspic recipes go back hundreds of years. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/32 "2012-03-06T15:53:54Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > 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. Peter Cooper invented powdered gelatin in 1845 but never did much with it as far as sales; he sold the patent to a cough syrup maker who mixed it with fruit flavor and named it Jell-o ā€¦ who sold it to a neighbor of his, Frank Woodward, in 1899. It was Woodward who made a go of the business. So since there was at least 50-70 years of availability, sort of makes the whole ā€œit was a new thing and they went crazy with itā€ not terribly good as an explanation for hideous Jell-o concoctions in the mid-late 60s . I do think as some other people said that gelatin was considered ā€œfancyā€ a long time after the reasons it was considered fancy and unusual became obsolete. ---
**Author:** ![phantom\_lamb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@phantom\_lamb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phantom_lamb)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/33 "2012-03-07T11:19:17Z")
That stuff is quite popular where I live (Eastern Europe) so yeah, people did and continue to eat it. šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/34 "2012-03-07T11:47:18Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Theyā€™re now sitting on the bookshelf in our bedroom because I canā€™t bear the thought of someday being in a position to exploit the kitsch and realizing that I threw them away a decade before. Ah, the travails of being both old and ironically hip! My daughters threw out a few of my old laptops while I was in the hospital. I saw them getting rained on and had to remind myself that two of them were broken and the third might as well have been, though it was cool to use back when I used it around college students. At least I still have my Tandy Model 100, age of 30. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/35 "2012-03-07T15:38:45Z")
> [@phantom\_lamb](#): > > That stuff is quite popular where I live (Eastern Europe) so yeah, people did and continue to eat it. šŸ˜‰ Sweetened gelatine with meat and vegetables in it? Really? While both fish-in-aspic and fruit-in-sweet-gelatin are popular slavic dishes ā€“ my Russian cookbook has a lovely ā€œmuscoviteā€ gelatin made with fresh squeezed orange juice and about a billion packets of gelatin, so itā€™s solid at room temperature ā€“ I was under the impression that combining large quantities of sugar and processed meat in one wobbly tower of horror was an American thing. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/36 "2012-03-07T15:46:31Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Sweetened gelatine with meat and vegetables in it? Really? I believe weā€™re talking about the general category of ā€œaspic,ā€ (although there appears to be a side discussion with fruit jellos and meat) which is what is in the OP. I donā€™t see any call for sweetened gelatin products in the OPā€™s links, unless ā€œDavis Gelantineā€ is sweetened. Iā€™m assuming itā€™s just bog standard gelatin. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/37 "2012-03-07T16:21:09Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I believe weā€™re talking about the general category of ā€œaspic,ā€ (although there appears to be a side discussion with fruit jellos and meat) which is what is in the OP. I donā€™t see any call for sweetened gelatin products in the OPā€™s links, unless ā€œDavis Gelantineā€ is sweetened. Iā€™m assuming itā€™s just bog standard gelatin. Ah, the OP asked about Jell-o, and Jell-o is a sweetened gealtin product. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/38 "2012-03-07T16:26:07Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Ah, the OP asked about Jell-o, and Jell-o is a sweetened gealtin product. Sure, but ā€œjelloā€ is also used in a general sense by many to describe any gelatin product. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/39 "2012-03-07T16:41:45Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Sure, but ā€œjelloā€ is also used in a general sense by many to describe any gelatin product. True, but often by those who donā€™t know anything else. Unsweetened unflavored gelatin will look like Jello and if Jello is all youā€™ve ever seen, youā€™ll assume thatā€™s what it is. Which would certainly raise my eyebrow. (ā€œSweetened fruit-flavored jello spiked with tuna fish? YUCK!ā€) But if it the recipe starts with something like Knox unsweetened, or better yet just the natural collagen of the meat/cartilage/bones/etc, the flavor will pretty much be whatever is IN the gelatin. And that can be awesome. Bacon in ham aspic, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630/40 "2012-03-07T16:52:21Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > True, but often by those who donā€™t know anything else. Unsweetened unflavored gelatin will look like Jello and if Jello is all youā€™ve ever seen, youā€™ll assume thatā€™s what it is. Well, I wouldnā€™t say that. Colloquially, I am far more likely to hear aspic (or even overcooked fall-off-the-bone ā€œbarbecueā€ ribs) described as ā€œmeat jelloā€ than ā€œmeat gelatinā€ or anything that precise. Heck, I know the difference, but I describe aspic as ā€œmeat jelloā€ to people unfamiliar with it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-actually-eat-those-jello-meat-seafood-olive-dishes/614630.md?page=3)