The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #118: Ginger-Upper

Howdy, Jigglers! Today I bring you a Two-Way Salad recipe that I was very excited for because it stars one of my favorite flavors in all the world: ginger. Enter the Ginger-Upper, a fruity salad dessert with ginger ale, lemon juice, and pears. Okay, maybe I shouldn't be so hard on the categorization of this recipe, because I guess you could serve this as a salad on lettuce and it would be fine with some flavors of Jell-O, but if you make this with strawberry, cherry, or any flavor that includes banana, this will instantly turn into a dessert dessert, guaranteed.

In my case, I thought the citrus and ginger flavors would go great with orange, while still maintaining a semblance of salad-ness, so I used the juice and zest of three Valencia oranges and unflavored gelatin in place of the Jell-O and some of the water. Other than that and adding a bit of lemon zest for good measure, I made this recipe exactly as written.

Last time I made a Jell-O recipe with fresh pears, I used some pears at the peak of ripeness, and they turned brown pretty quickly. So I used this recipe as an opportunity to experiment with fresh pears that were still just slightly hard but not astringent, peel and all.

I really liked how much color the orange juice imparted to this mold, and let me tell you, adding zest contributes a whole new dimension of flavor to citrus gelatin flavored with real juice. The contrast of the green pears looked very nice, too. Tastewise, with the addition of the ginger ale and orange juice, this mold had all the sweetness it needed, and the pears tasted ripe within a day or so. On the whole, this dish was a fresh and tasty salad that was...sadly lacking in gingery zing for a recipe with "ginger" as the first word in the title.

Granted, ginger ale normally has a subdued ginger taste, but it is just barely noticeable mixed with all the citrus and pears, and if you were to used boxed Jell-O, it would be even less apparent. Thus, I recommend that if you want this to have more of a punchy ginger taste, you ought to use ginger beer instead of ginger ale or add a tablespoon or two of grated fresh ginger into the mix. That should do the trick. 

The Ginger-Upper held up fairly well in storage, though within three days the pears got slightly brown around the edges of the peel, but that was certainly an improvement over the other time I used fresh pears. Overall, I was quite pleased with how this turned out. It made a good side dish, but I was disappointed with the lack of convincing ginger flavor. With my recommended adjustments, it should turn out much zippier. To be fair, though, I understand that in 1964 it was probably harder to find fresh ginger or ginger beer, so I can excuse General Foods's use of ginger ale. I just can't excuse their insistence on boasting so much about how gingery this is when, in fact, it isn't.