Okay,
so it's been quite a while since I've posted a Jell-O recipe. Mostly
that's due to having bought a house and otherwise staying very busy,
but I also just haven't made that many Jell-O recipes. And, sadly, I
didn't get pictures of the few I did make, but I'm still going to jot
down my thoughts on each one and post the recipes.
The
other thing I have started doing differently is making these recipes
out of order. Instead of doing them as the book presents them (which
would leave me stranded on "savory Jell-O dish" island for
quite a while without a break), I've started going in a more-or-less
random order based on my husband's recommendations and/or what I have
on hand at the moment. Hopefully this will be a little more
entertaining to follow along with, as even in the dessert sections,
there are lots
of consecutive Bavarian and Crown Jewel recipes, so hopefully
switching it up will help us all avoid burning out on such
repetition.
The
first recipe I made was the Cherry Cola Mold. This was chosen by my
husband because, frankly, cola and mayonnaise don't seem like the
snuggliest of bedfellows. I made this recipe exactly as written,
which is easy and straightforward (like most Jell-O recipes), except
that I omitted the nuts. Maybe there's a gelatin recipe I would like
better with nuts, but up to this point I haven't found it. I also found it
very odd that this recipe calls for both cherry and strawberry
gelatin. Wouldn't it be more cherry-y with two packages of cherry
Jell-O?
As
far as the finished product goes, the gelatin takes on a dusty rose
color due to the cherry syrup, cola, and dairy ingredients, and it's
smooth apart from the chunky ingredients.
The
flavor...well, it's okay. It certainly tastes like cherry, with a
tanginess provided by the pineapples and mayonnaise. The cola flavor
almost entirely gets lost in the mix, while the cream cheese and mayo
just make the whole thing so fatty it's almost too rich. Overall,
it's merely alright, though I am impressed that you can add mayo,
cream cheese, and cola to Jell-O and end up with a dish where none of
those ingredients are distinguishable.
If
I were General Foods and had the idea for a cherry cola mold, though,
I think I could have done better, and maybe someday I will try this and report back on how it works out:
-Take
the capacity of your mold, subtract half a cup, then divide by two.
-Take
the quantity you came up with in the first step, and bring that much
of your favorite cola to a boil--bonus points if it's cherry
flavored.
-Dissolve
6 ounces of cherry Jell-O into the boiling cola.
-Take
the same amount you calculated again of cold cola and add it to the
gelatin mixture.
-Pour
gelatin mixture into the mold and let cool until soft-set (or, as
official Jell-O parlance would have it, very thick), then stir in
half a cup of maraschino cherries, optionally adding a splash of the
cherry syrup.
-Chill
until firm, then unmold.
-Optional:
leave out any maraschino syrup, continue thickening the gelatin until
set but not firm, then add a thin layer of the syrup for a colorful
layered effect.
While
that dish might not be as pretty or Jell-O salad-y, I think it would
be more successful at meeting the goal of "Cherry Cola Mold."
It would taste like cherries and cola instead of cherries and
pineapple. As written, though, this recipe is passable taste-wise,
just very confusing. I would not make it again.
Next
up: a few recipes I did a while ago, then back to the regularly
scheduled "I make one recipe then post about it, with pictures
of what it actually looks like" routine.
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