# Jello Salad: Threat Or Abomination? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 19, 2020, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jello-salad-threat-or-abomination/849841 "2020-03-19T21:18:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jello-salad-threat-or-abomination/849841/21 "2020-03-20T23:04:47Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > My mother used to make a delightful dish with jello. Dissolve the powder in hot water and let it cool until it starts to thicken. Mix thoroughly with an equal amount of vanilla ice cream and put in the freezer until it hardens. Enjoy. Wait! Wut??!!? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jello-salad-threat-or-abomination/849841/22 "2020-03-21T01:22:25Z")
Jello DESSERTS are FINE. I like Jello just fine. My objection is the encasement of non dessert foodstuffs in a dessert CASING. Except meat pies. Meat pies are peachy. No, wait, that came out wrong. Meat pies are PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE, assuming you don’t try to load beef, chicken, or pork into a fruit flavored pie filling or some such damfoolishness. Now, if someone out there wants to use a gelatin mortar to hold together some sort of spam edifice, well, fine and dandy. And if you wish to embed a fruit salad mix in your fruit flavored gelatin mold, that’s fine too. But what mad universe calls for the implantation of olives and raw onion and little tomato pyramids in CHERRY JELLO, for potato’s sake? Still remember trying to talk to my parents about it afterwards. It was the same sort of unsatisfying explanation they gave me for the unprovability of the existence of God, or why you couldn’t wear polka dots with plaids, or why turtles live longer than aardvarks. “Well, it just IS, son,” they said. “It wouldn’t be MY choice, but once upon a time, people did indeed put some pretty strange things into fruit flavored gelatin, and, well, Mrs. Garweed is old enough to remember when this was considered quite a TREAT, back in the Depression, when people had to eat baked rocks and wear live ferrets for clothing…” ---
**Author:** ![a6ka97](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@a6ka97](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a6ka97)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jello-salad-threat-or-abomination/849841/23 "2020-03-21T01:25:10Z")
Great story! Reminds of the family gatherings in my youth. Plain flavored Jello for me, okay maybe strawberry or cherry Jello with bananas. My mom would make these things called Knox blocks (used Knox brand gelatin with a flavored Jello) that would stay “solid” without refrigeration to take to school in our sack lunch. The nasty stuff I remember from these gatherings was the punch. A mixture of 7up, grapefruit juice, and maybe ginger ale with an ice ring floating around in the bowl. Even though all the kids thought it tasted terrible and you never saw adults drink it my aunt made it for every occasion and you got a glass whether you wanted some or not. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jello-salad-threat-or-abomination/849841/24 "2020-03-21T02:56:28Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > These are poignant, moving stories of America. > > Somehow this reminds me of the (fairly brief) time I was homeschooling my daughter and I got an idea from a homeschooling science workbook for an edible geology project. We constructed sedimentary layers of jello, bananas, and I think crumbled graham crackers in a lasagne pan. There was only one hitch to it, which was that no one in my family would touch it. Not even the dogs. The chickens ate it. > > Personally, I like jello, and I prefer it with cranberry relish in it (my grandmother’s ground up cranberries and oranges recipe, not that cranberry aspic in a can thing). But that’s about my limit of additives. So, what ELSE did you put in it, if nobody would eat it? That actually sounds good. BTW, back in the day, the Jello company briefly sold tomato and celery-flavored products, among a few others. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jello-salad-threat-or-abomination/849841/25 "2020-03-21T06:15:16Z")
No sex. One star. (Ignore me spooning my Raymundo’s gelatin Créme Parfait, handcrafted in small batches.) ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jello-salad-threat-or-abomination/849841/26 "2020-03-21T09:22:19Z")
if you trulywish t o see jello in all its infamy go to [www.midcentrymenu.com](http://www.midcentrymenu.com) and click on the jello link shes even went to the official jello museum … ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jello-salad-threat-or-abomination/849841/27 "2020-03-21T10:09:01Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > So, what ELSE did you put in it, if nobody would eat it? That actually sounds good. > > BTW, back in the day, the Jello company briefly sold tomato and celery-flavored products, among a few others. I hate bananas and can’t eat anything they are in. My husband hates jello and won’t touch it. There are very very few foods he won’t eat but that’s one of them. My daughter at that point in her life refused to eat any foods that were “mixed”. I hadn’t really thought that through before I embarked on my geology experiment. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jello-salad-threat-or-abomination/849841/28 "2020-03-21T14:07:04Z")
It occurs to me a whole thread could be composed… perhaps in the Pit… about “things my elders forced me to eat or drink that were utterly repulsive.” [Lileks.com](http://Lileks.com) and the Gallery of Regrettable Food has some fine examples of Jello Salad MidAmericana at their worst. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jello-salad-threat-or-abomination/849841/29 "2020-03-21T21:29:20Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > if you trulywish t o see jello in all its infamy go to [www.midcentrymenu.com](http://www.midcentrymenu.com) and click on the jello link shes even went to the official jello museum … I grew up in the next town over from Leroy. I am actually sitting here, roughly 8 miles from the Jello Museum =) ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2020, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jello-salad-threat-or-abomination/849841/30 "2020-03-21T22:50:33Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > if you trulywish t o see jello in all its infamy go to [www.midcentrymenu.com](http://www.midcentrymenu.com) and click on the jello link shes even went to the official jello museum … [Fixed link.](http://www.midcenturymenu.com/) (You left the U out of century.) ---
**Author:** ![dogbutler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogbutler/32/428_2.png) [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jello-salad-threat-or-abomination/849841/31 "2020-03-22T01:39:07Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > Lime Jello, lemon Jello, and orange Jello were considered appropriate mortar for savory applications. At least, for those individuals who did not want to rassle with envelopes of Knox unflavored gelatine. > > Blame the mothers of Boomers, who resided in cookie-cutter subdivisions and read “women’s magazines” for education and entertainment. _Ladies’ Home Journal_, _McCall’s_, and _Good Housekeeping_ were the main players. Along with detailed instructions of cleaning and laundry, women were to serve enticing meals to The Mister when he came home from a hard day of hunting and gathering. > > Carrots in orange Jello! Diced green pepper in lemon Jello! And Gawd-knows-what in green Jello! The smart homemaker crowned each “salad” with a greasy blob of Best Foods Real Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip. > > If you pushed that crap around in circles on your plate enough, the heat from the meatloaf and peas would melt the Jello. With enough ketchup, the meatloaf was edible. > > A really DELUXE offering was grated carrots and drained canned pineapple tidbits floating in orange Jello. With the blob of Miracle Whip on top. > > Worst of all was cottage cheese stirred into lime Jello. It looked and tasted like puke. > > Your cough syrup Jello sounds like a menu item from “The Walking Dead.” > ~VOW I do like the crrots in orange Jell-O. And I endured some of the lesser jelled horrors back in the 70s. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2020, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jello-salad-threat-or-abomination/849841/32 "2020-03-22T11:59:17Z")
My mom makes a cranberry salad which mixes fresh cranberries with orange jello. She might have put it in a copper ring at some point, but mostly just a bowl. Served with sweetened whipped cream. It’s a recipe that she developed over the years, so it was a bit of hit or miss whether it set up. It’s now been stable for 30 years. However, I stopped eating jello. And I now use a recipe that keeps the skins of the cranberries and doesn’t need jello. And due to this thread, I finally threw out an unopened box of powdered gelatine. The use by date was 2013. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jello-salad-threat-or-abomination/849841.md?page=1)