Howdy, Jigglers! I guess my husband just wanted to spite me this time because, when I asked him to pick me out a Jell-O recipe, he chose Tangy Cabbage Salad. Now when I think of yummy Jell-O delights, no three words swim more quickly to the top of mind than those, am I right?
. . .
This recipe is a hodgepodge of everything briny: pickles, horseradish, pimiento, vinegar, savory Jell-O (which, of course, is no longer manufactured--RIP), with a light dusting (by which I certainly don't mean a cup and a half) of shredded cabbage for roughage. It claims to form a relish to accompany meats.
This bizarre concoction comes together as simply and straightforwardly as most Jell-O recipes. You boil the water, mix in your Jell-O, add more liquid ingredients, chill until thick, and then mix in the solid ingredients so they get evenly incorporated. Finally, you let it chill until hardened. I followed the recipe exactly except for omitting pimiento (as I didn't have any and it doesn't taste like anything anyway) and substituting unflavored gelatin and celery salt for the Jell-O and salt. Of all the salad Jell-O flavors (mixed vegetable, celery, Italian, and tomato), I figured the celery would clash the least with the rest of the ingredients. Horseradish and Italian seasonings together? No thanks.
Predictably, Tangy Cabbage Salad looked a little snot-esque. I didn't add as much gelatin as I typically do to a recipe of this size because the description says it should be soft set, so it was very jiggly without having the definitive bite to it that I enjoy in gelatin.
Aside from its texture, which was not improved by all the raw cabbage in there, the flavor was just bad. It tasted like pickle juice-flavored Jell-O. I was expecting to get a spicier horseradish-y tang, but that's drowned out by a wall of vinegar from the pickle relish and just literal vinegar hanging out in there. The celery flavor doesn't even come through. The only thing that peeks through the acid is raw cabbage. Now, I'm a cabbage lover. I love blackened cabbage wedges with sriracha mayo, I love corned beef and cabbage, and I love coleslaw. I even enjoy sauerkraut on my brats. But all of those cabbage applications have one thing in common: they have something fatty, with lots of flavor, to balance out the cabbage. Particularly in the case of cole slaw, where the cabbage is raw, you need salt, sugar, and fat in the dressing to make it palatable.
Tangy Cabbage Salad on the other hand, has virtually no fat, and the cabbage just hangs out, raw and unimproved. It's really terrible. I did manage to eat it all, but I didn't enjoy a single bite. I can't imagine anything it would accompany well. Poor show, General Foods.
