The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #89: Frosty Melon

Howdy, Jigglers! Of all of the recipes in JOJ with accompanying photos, Frosty Melon was probably the one I have been looking forward to the most. It looks like an abstract sculpture, and it's made up of only melon, gelatin with fruit, and cream cheese. What could go wrong?

I also love that this recipe is in the "Two-Way Salads" chapter of the book. All of these recipes basically make me think the same thing, which is that they are for people who want to think of their fruity desserts as healthy side dishes. This is a delusion with which I sympathize completely, as I also will use any excuse to play down my sweets addiction.

In any case, to make this fruity treat, I started out with a honeydew melon, a cup of mango nectar and unflavored gelatin as the filling, a can of fruit cocktail with its syrup, and of course some cream cheese. As a side note, for the longest time I had only eaten honeydew in fruit mixes and never enjoyed it, but if you get a whole melon and eat it that way, it tastes ten times more sweet and juicy than its pre-cut version, so if you haven't tried it that way, I wholly recommend it.

Making this recipe is remarkably simple, though it leaves you with a lot of leftover gelatin mix. I had enough to fill five individual serving dishes. If you wanted to avoid this, you could scoop out some of the melon flesh before filling the melon, though that would leave you with extra melon to deal with. 

 I was heartily pleased with how the final product turned out aesthetically. When I first got it assembled, it just looked like a volleyball, like so:

But once you cut into it, the concentric rings of fruit and cheese are quite nice. It does look like something one would eat in the very distant future, but who doesn't want a circular treat sometimes?

The Frosty Melon delivers in terms of taste as well. The unsweetened cream cheese accentuates the sweetness of the melon, fruit, and gelatin, and the textures mesh together surprisingly well. The cheese also helps this otherwise light dessert salad become a little more filling.

Another thought that occurred to me is that this dish would be a tasty way to model the earth or another planet for kids. You would just fill the center of a cantaloupe with red gelatin and color the cream cheese to look like the planet's surface. I love it when science and the culinary arts combine!

Whether it's for a geology lesson, a volleyball party, or just for a sweet mod picnic, the Frosty Melon is a superb "salad." Kudos to the General Foods team, and until next time, stay frosty.