The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #135: Sunset Salad

Howdy, Jigglers! Today I am tackling what is probably one of the most popular non-dessert Jell-O recipes ever invented, the Sunset Salad. Even my mom, who doesn't cotton to the idea of using Jell-O for anything outside of fruit salads, liked this colorful mold of carrots and pineapple.

 

Before proceeding any further, I would just like to say how much I love the look of this salad as styled here. It is a triumph, and it sets a big, scary precedent for how this salad should look. Even the garnishes look luxe, and I'm particularly happy to see that carrot ribbons predate Instagram.

Back to the actual recipe, though. Because this salad is so beautiful when clear, I broke down and just bought orange Jell-O and followed the recipe to the letter instead of using orange juice and unflavored gelatin. I also omitted the pecans. Okay, I did make one substantial change: I added another tablespoon of unflavored gelatin to the Jell-O to make sure the molds would hold their shape nicely, plus I just prefer harder gelatin in general.

The recipe is very simple to make, but I was disappointed in how little it made. I filled four individual molds of various sizes (one small, two medium, and one large), but I couldn't have filled my Bundt pan even halfway with this recipe, and it wouldn't have filled my fish mold either. Again, my suggestions are to follow.

I think this turned out looking close to as nice as the photo from the book. It certainly looks nice, and I  enjoyed how it tasted as well, enough to eat it with lunch all week and then miss it when it was gone. The carrots provide a crunchy contrast to the tropical fruit flavors of the gelatin, but they are sweet enough not to be incongruous with the overall taste. It tastes very bright and summery as well--this would be a perfect side at an Easter dinner or a spring picnic to get you out of those winter blues.

Now, if I were to make this again (and this recipe might have to go into the venerable "I plan on making this again" pile), I would do it a little differently. For best visual and taste appeal, I would leave all ingredients the way I left them except I would double the quanity of water and dissolve a package of pineapple Jell-O alongside the orange Jell-O. This would achieve the orange-pineapple effect that the recipe calls for, and it would make the mold prettier and bigger. If you try this, you might want to increase the amount of carrots and pinapple a little, maybe a quarter or a third, but no more. That way the mold will be a little clearer and provide more of a "things are floating in the Jell-O" aesthetic, as seen in the recipe photograph.

 

As-is, though, the Sunset Salad was still a superb success for a Jell-O recipe with vegetables in it. For anyone who doesn't dig carrots, this might be just what you need to get that beta carotene in. General Foods gets a gold star for this one.

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #176: Cherry-Glazed Ham

 Howdy, Jigglers! For our Christmas dinner this year, I roasted a shank portion ham, and that provided a perfect excuse to try one of the more creative recipes from Joys of Jell-O--Cherry-Glazed Ham!

This recipe has you baste a mostly roasted ham with a sweet, cherry-flavored gelatinous mixture and bedazzle it with cloves. It's very simple, but I reckoned that cherry Jell-O would be too sweet with all the added sugar, and the cherry flavor would be a little too much or too artificial. I remedied this situation by replacing the water and Jell-O with pure black cherry juice and two tablespoons of unflavored gelatin.

I did everything else exactly as specified in the recipe, and look how nice and shiny this ham turned out!

Clearly this was the piece de resistance of our entire holiday meal. Even now I can't get over how pretty it was!

The ham tasted great, too. The outside, glazed part was just the right amount of sweet, just the right amount of spiced, and ever so slightly sticky as well. Here are some slice shots.

This made a perfect centerpiece for our parmesan-encrusted roasted zucchini and our garlicky green beans. We followed the instructions on how to use the drippings as sauce, but a word of caution here: At least with the kind of ham we used, the drippings are about 70% grease and 30% gelatin mixture, and the two don't mix. For best results, try to separate the two entirely (easily done through refrigeration for leftovers, but at the first serving, try pouring off the fat into a separate container), discard the grease or reserve it for other uses, and only use the gelatin mixture for your sauce.

Despite that minor detail, this recipe is stellar, but it gets better. This recipe could easily be altered for other occasions or seasons. Imagine an Easter roast ham with a pineapple-cayenne glaze (made with canned or otherwise cooked pineapple juice, of course). Or a Thanksgiving ham with an apple cider-cinnamon glaze. Orange juice-glazed ham is a classic too, and gelatin is just the thing to make it stick. Glazed ham has just become an entire genre of cuisine for me thanks to this recipe!

Great job, General Foods, on doing something novel with Jell-O that actually works exactly as intended!

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #63: Pineapple Snow

Howdy, Jigglers! It's been forever since I've done a Jell-O recipe, but I've been looking forward to doing this one for a long time. Whipped Jell-O never should have gone out of style--it's so bubbly and fluffy, and the calorie count per unit of volume has to be way low. Pineapple Snow takes the fluff factor and cranks it up with the addition of an egg white for extra volume, so you know this is going to be fun.

 

For once, I actually followed the recipe's ingredients list as closely as possible. I don't think the orange-pineapple flavor of Jell-O exists anymore, but I found Island Pineapple. For the juice, I cheaped out and got Jumex pineapple nectar, which worked fine.

 

 

As a side note, I have always loved this Dog 'n' Suds mug, but it broke on me not three days after this photo was taken. Rest in peace.

The method in this recipe is very simple: mix your boiling water and Jell-O, then add the juice. Chill until very thick, then add egg white and whip until fluffy and chill until hardened. I suppose you could mold this recipe, but you would have to be very careful not to heat the mold up too much when unmolding, or else the exterior of the mold would lose its delicate texture.

 

 

 

The only hiccup I had while making Pineapple Snow is that I don't think I waited quite long enough to start whipping. It whipped up fine, but some solid Jell-O accumulated in the bottom of each dish, as seen in the photo below. This in itself is not bad, but if I had waited a bit longer, I bet it wouldn't have happened, so have patience.

 

 

 

The end result of this recipe is truly fluffy while maintaining its pineapple-y richness. I have been on a pineapple kick for a month now, but this is really good, even with the actual Jell-O. While I have not tried the pineapple Jell-O in regular jiggly Jell-O form, with this preparation, it's excellent. I think all the bubbles, and thus dilution of the gelatin, keep the flavors from becoming overpowering.

 

In addition to the taste, I like how simple and easy this recipe is, as well as that it's not instantly recognizeable as Jell-O. Pineapple Snow would be just as at home at a kid's summer party as it would be at a holiday table or a luncheon adult friends.  I guess I would describe it as a fruity, mousse meringue.

 

Pineapple Snow is among my favorite recipes that I've made with Jell-O specifically, if not my very favorite. The only thing I might alter about it someday is to add some coconut milk or something coconutty (toasted coconut flakes on top?) to make Pina Colada Snow. That would be tiki bar heaven for me. 

 

We have to commend General Foods heartily for their addition of the Pineapple Snow recipe to the Joys of Jell-O cookbook. Next time, we will dive into a recipe much less firmly planted in the "This has got to be good" camp and much more firmly planted in the "Why would anyone do this with Jell-O?" camp.

Gelatin in the Wild: Lala Yomi Gelatina Fresa (Reduced Sugar)

Howdy, Jigglers! In this installment of Gelatin in the Wild, we are going to make a sequel to the Lala Yomi Gelatina Uva with its strawberry-flavored counterpart. Just like last time, I encountered this cup o' gelatin all of a sudden and only had a chance to get this photo before scarfing it down:

 

 

Strawberry is and has always been my favorite artificial gelatin flavor. It doesn't quite taste like strawberries, but it gets the point across, and this was no exception. I really found the artificial sweeteners less pronounced in this version as compared to the grape flavor, too. As with the grape variety, though, the strawberry Yomi has that bouncy texture we were all hoping for. 

 

All in all, Lala Yomi Fresa doesn't disappoint. Consider it a perfect substitution for a reduced-sugar Jell-O cup!

Gelatin in the Wild: Lala Yomi Gelatina Uva (Reduced Sugar)

Howdy, Jigglers! I'm taking a little break from The Joys of Jell-O to show you a gelatin that I found out in the world: a reduced sugar Lala gelatin cup in grape from Mexico!

In appearance this product is definitely similar to a Jell-O cup: same color, same consistency. The flavor is that of a strong grape soda, and even though it's reduced sugar and you can taste some artificial sweetener, it tastes very sweet. Overall the Lala gelatin is pretty good, and I give it a soft recommendation, mostly on account of the fact that they really don't skimp on the flavoring.

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #96: Fruit Cocktail Salad

Howdy, Jigglers! Much like the last recipe I made, my choice of the Fruit Cocktail Salad was largely based on a can of fruit in my cupboard and a gifted banana. Together with some apple juice to flavor the gelatin, I had a perfectly coherent mix of ingredients for this dessert, only needing to purchase some pecans and a lemon to round it out.

As with most of these recipes, the method of preparing this was bog standard. The amount of liquid in the dish is a little less than normal, so I didn't want to mold the salad because it wouldn't have filled any mold very well. Instead I chose to put it in a nice china serving dish to make it pretty. And pretty it was!

I love the rich, warm colors of the salad. Even though this is just some bargain basement fruit with a couple of pecans thrown in, it looks fancy. It would make a perfect early autumn dessert for when it's still warm out, but everyone already wants to get into the pumpkin spice and apple cider mindset.

The Fruit Cocktail Salad tastes quite nice as well. Between the banana, the apple juice, and the syrup from the fruit cocktail, it is certainly sweet, but the lemon juice and the savory nuts balance that a little, and there is nothing heavy about it. This is one of those gelatin dishes that would not be controversial at a potluck.

If you want to use actual Jell-O flavors, I would recommend lemon, orange, or cherry. If you are into new-fangled Jell-O flavors, peach or apricot would work nicely as well. I have not yet had the good fortune to try the apricot flavor, but if it is anything like what it says on the tin, it should do the trick here. Other than switching up the gelatin flavor, though, I cannot for the life of me think of any further improvements that could be made here. The Fruit Cocktail Salad simply does what it's supposed to do, just as it is.

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #58: Peach and Banana Mold

Howdy, Jigglers! Today I'd like to present a Jell-O recipe, the Peach and Banana Mold, that really highlights two of the most basic yet appealing aspects of gelatin desserts (or fruit salads, if you want to be generous): thrift and clarity.

As you can see, there's just about nothing to this recipe in terms of ingredients to buy. In fact, I made this recipe essentially for free, as I had lime Jell-O and a can of peaches on hand, and a friend of mine gave me a banana out of the blue one day. Of course, that prompted me to furiously scan the pages of The Joys of Jell-O to look for something I could easily make with it, and that's how I decided to make this recipe in the first place.

The method involved in creating this dish is truly basic as well. The hardest part, I suppose, was evenly distributing the peach and banana slices in the gelatin since I was using a mold that is thin in places. With most kinds of molds, this wouldn't be an issue, however.


The final product turned out very aesthetically pleasing too. One problem that a lot of these vintage Jell-O recipes have is that they are very often so full of different ingredients that the final dish looks cluttered and busy. My next post will be on a recipe that makes that work in its favor, but most of the time it detracts from the appearance. This recipe, though, has just enough fruit mixed in to provide bold contrast and interest while not making you forget that all the fruit is suspended in a clear gelatin matrix.

Now that's a fruit salad perfect to take to a party pad with shag carpeting! Speaking of bringing dishes to a party, that's another advantage these simple Jell-O recipes offer: when you bring them to a potluck, all the ingredients are easily identifiable. People won't get wary about ingredients they don't like or are allergic to being hidden among all the other mix-ins.

The taste of this dessert is light and refreshing, but certainly not short on flavor. I was a little concerned about the lime flavor not going well with the peaches, but it was very tasty. It might be slightly better with orange-pineapple gelatin, though. Now, Orange-Pineapple is no longer on the Jell-O roster, but you could easily use half a package of Orange and half a package of Pineapple, or you could substitute half the water for (canned or bottled and not fresh) pineapple juice and the other half for fresh-squeezed orange juice and use unflavored gelatin. That flavor combination would make this dish look even better, too. I also like the idea of serving a garnish of banana slices rolled in nuts--honestly that would make a very light dessert on its own--though it sort of negates the make-ahead possibilities of this mold. 

At any rate, this recipe doesn't try to reinvent the wheel in any way, but its simplicity is precisely what makes it so great. I do understand why there aren't tons and tons of recipes like this in General Foods's cookbook, since it is basically just "mix and match Jell-O flavors and different fruits," but it's nice to have a few examples of successful combinations of this kind included. You never know when, like me, you might end up with some ripe fruit and no clue what to do with it, and for times like that, the Peach and Banana Mold will serve you well.