Okay - Unbelievers - People make Jello with vegetables suspended in it slathered with mayo.

[Aerows]

As awful as you imagine it to be, I am not making this up.

Lime Jello with cabbage in it - slathered in mayo.

Orange Jello with carrots suspended in it - slathered with mayo.

I know it sounds horrid (and it is and you would not get me to eat that if I was starving, because I would probably start eating bugs at that point).

I have witnessed people eat it, bring it to Thanksgiving dinners, and I gave thanks that I didn't have to eat it.

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. vegan dishes made non vegan with the additional of animal products

[Aerows]

6. Gelatin is non-vegan

That has nothing to do with this post, however.

Someone doubted that such monstrosities have existed and that people for some reason not only consume it, they actually make them.

I think I'd about be ready to give haggis a try first.

[JimDandy]

51. Everyone likes my orange jello with carrots, mandarine oranges and cool whip.

The carrots are sweet and give it a crunch. I either put it on a bed of iceberg lettuce and fill the hole in the middle with cottage cheese, or a bed of kiwi slices and fill the hole with whip cream. Yum!

Mayo on it?....now that's disgusting.

[840high]

80. Yes - my daughter makes it. Like.

[JimDandy]

83. I used to only do the whip cream version, but with all the diabetics in my family

I now mostly make the sugar-free version with cottage cheese.

[840high]

95. Thanks. I'll pass this on.

[snooper2]

159. that may be one of the most disgusting things I have ever heard of LOL

you take this-




and combing it with this-

[Hortensis]

223. Maybe, but I predict a REBIRTH OF GELATIN SALADS.

They can be beautiful, healthy, cool and refreshing, and delicious. Especially these days when people make them with real juices and broths and fresh fruits and veggies.

A summer salad with cherry tomatoes, basil, goal cheese, vegetable aspic, etc.


And sometimes intoxicating, like this little Don Draper dessert from themoderngelatina.com. A lot nicer than a shooter.


2 packets knox gelatin
½ cup water (for blooming)
¾ water
½ cup sugar (or to taste)
Juice of one lemon (approx. ¼ cup) with zest reserved
1 ¾ cup bourbon
6 dashes of aromatic bitters, or to taste
1 cup strained maraschino cherries

You realize, of course, that the current wave of fascinated attention to these things is really just an augur for the future? Poking the blob is a precursor to making one. This time around no doubt selfies of proud cooks and their creations will fly by the millions.

[RobinA]

152. I Am A Jello Lover

and that sounds great. For people who like jello, you can make your own by adding gelatin to the fruit juice of your choice, thereby greatly widening your options for yummy jello salads. Just keep away with the mayo, I admit that's gross.

[Liberal_in_LA]

67. yes.

[3catwoman3]

100. I have eaten haggis...

...and it is better.

[Aerows]

168. Pass the haggis

I'll eat that before the mayo walloped lime/cabbage jello, and I love cabbage.

[toddwv]

49. Gelatin

is made from rendered animal parts such as connective tissue, skin, and bones.

[Hekate]

87. My bone broth is always solid after it cools in the fridge, but it tastes like its source.

I don't know what kind of magic the Jello an Knox chemists do to take that away.

There are fruits that jell -- that's the natural pectin.

[Monk06]

136. I roast chicken thighs in 1/2 inch of chicken stock an save off the liquid and put it in the fridge

When it gels I skim the fat and use it for the next batch of chicken thighs then save it, chill, skim and repeat. After I have enought gelatin I freeze it in ice cupe trays.

I also save the thight bones after roasting and make a chicken stock with those after I have a dozen or so of them.

I use the chicken glase mostly to make risotto along with the liquid stock from the bones

[Hekate]

137. I love homemade chicken broth, and it is so easy. The stuff in cans is all salt...

...really kind of nasty once you get used to the real thing. I think there must be someone in the Swanson's factory who waves a chicken over a vat of salt water and calls it good.

[Aerows]

167. NO JOKE!

Wave a chicken over a vat of salt water. And that's exactly what it tastes like!

If you want good broth, you have to have some bones involved. No other way to do it.

[Aerows]

169. That's the only way to do it.

Otherwise you are just fooling around!

[Shandris]

2. I've seen an expose about that in some old magazine from the late 60s.

Reader's Digest or National Geographic or the like. It was fascinating...and utterly disgusting. 20 holiday 'treats' made with Jell-O, and not a one of them would I consider 'edible' in the event of a zombie apocalypse!

[Aerows]

3. See, I've witness those things

come to the table.

Bugs. I would eat bugs first.

[Shandris]

7. I would TOTALLY eat bugs first.

And...my local farmers market-not-farmers market (??? Its like a farmers market, but somehow they're a chain too? It was kind of deceptive until I found the real one. Anyways.) sells chocolate-covered bugs. Oh yes, between the two its no contest.

Jell-O is for sweet things. Meat is for not sweet things. I hate it when people cross those up!

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Don't knock it, I mean the bugs

I have actually eaten some, properly prepared by indigenous first peoples who still eat them in Mexico.

Ah Maguey worms, fried, with lemon, a tortilla and salsa.

[Aerows]

33. I'll have the bugs, please! n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

66. Well one desert I actually liked

no mayo and it actually is ok, is fresh fruit cocktail in lemon Jell'O. It was fruit on top of now we know artificial fruity flavor. Yeah, my mom pretty much got it out of the Readers Digest. They made them with grapes and oranges and apples. As I said, that was not that bad. I would not try to recreate it these days but it was I guess the least of the monstrosities that emerged out of the magazine. Some I have seen over the years, oh my fucking lord.

Lordly I cannot even find it. Just the canned fruit salad version. I suppose the use fresh fruit was a Mexican version of the thing. And yes, the Readers Digest was a way to spread the Murican way of life abroad... and my mom was a regular subscriber. I read it as a kid.

Of course as a ten year old I had no idea.

Here, one book on the readers digest.

http://www.amazon.com/AMERICAN-DREAMERS-Wallaces-Readers-Insiders/dp/0684809281

[Art_from_Ark]

143. In the Nagano area of Japan, people sometimes roast honeybees

and in the Tohoku region (where the big earthquake and tsunami occurred), people roast grasshoppers in soy sauce. I've tried both, and yeah, I would rather eat those than the Jello dishes you described.

[Aerows]

203. Pass the grasshoppers in soy sauce

I'm not even going to go there with the mayonnaise jello concoction.

And they disguise it too - and put it IN the JellO and you are hit with vegetable, mayo and whatever in the heck they put in it all at one time.

[DJ13]

4. Oh

[Aerows]

171. Frightening as all get out. n/t

[etherealtruth]

5. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

[Aerows]

9. A lime jello ring

filled with tuna ... something.

I cannot answer that question. I do not understand it myself.

[etherealtruth]

11. Did anyone actually eat this stuff?

I was born in the 1960s and am here to tell you I NEVER saw this stuff (much less ate it :puke

[Aerows]

17. Plague.

I avoided it.

[yardwork]

31. I grew up in the Midwest. This is our regional delicacy.

What.

[Aerows]

37. What you've seen on the table

you cannot unsee.

[yardwork]

41. I've never actually seen that. What is IN those eggs?

[NuttyFluffers]

144. those are deviled eggs with the powdery yolk filling piped out from icing nozzle

i've known and had most of these dishes. and bugs. and vegan food. et cetera.

they're all within varying degrees of edible. some are actually delicious. the magic is in the preparation, and a little knowing of your audience.

salmon lemon jello with anchovies or picked beets as relish toppings is an acquired taste to be sure, however.

remember, aspic (food in meat gelatin) was considered a delicacy and the novelty to bring that, let alone "ham in a can," was revolutionary to middle class entertainment. so the birth of jello variants for aspic and gelatin salads.

[yardwork]

150. Scholarly talk from somebody named Nutty Fluffers!

Just kidding! I love learning about cultural history, including food.

[Aerows]

170. Okay. Think about what you are saying.

Salmon lemon jello with anchovies.

Dear lord, I thought my faith in humanity died with the mayonnaise in the stuffing, but you've just ruined it entirely for me!



Eat what you like, but I hope I never acquire taste buds that are anywhere near that vicinity, and I eat boudin on a regular basis.

Illustration:

[NuttyFluffers]

199. mayonnaise and boudin is delicious.

it's all in how you prepare it and how well you know your audience. for some mac n cheese is as far as they'll ever go. and for others the shape, look, and taste of mac n cheese is a bridge too far.

there's few culinary things i have not eaten, much to my joy and regret.

[Kilgore]

45. Food should not "shimmer"

[lunasun]

158. Meat, vegs,fish in aspic nothing new .

[etherealtruth]

38. I grew up in metro Detroit .... we ate jello ....

..... vegetables/ mayo/seafood were not something one considered "doing" with jello


seriously

[yardwork]

42. The cities are different. I'm talking Lutheran church suppers.

[etherealtruth]

44. Ahhhhh .... That is different n/t

[Aerows]

48. Lutheran church suppers sound

like a crowd of Southern Baptists.

:shudder:

[Freddie]

89. I'm Lutheran

We have a complicated relationship with Jello.
No tuna (thankfully). The usual jello salad is lime (yuck) or orange jello with various fruits, shredded carrots, walnuts, mini marshmallows and cream cheese. No mayo that I've seen.

[Aerows]

110. No mayo

Thank heaven's at least one religion gets it right!

[countryjake]

173. You got that right!

I think that, in my day, I saw every variation of some of the jello "recipe" pics that have been posted in this thread, including the concoctions that Aerows first mentioned, presented on long tables in the church basement by proud mamas.

Boxes of Jello were supposed to make things easier for women chained to kitchen work. My own mother never trusted anything store-bought, considered processed food a government plot to poison us all...we made our own aspic which always tasted just like whatever animal or vegetable it came from.

You made me chuckle out loud when you honed in on Midwestern Lutheran church suppers. So many truths from yesteryear!

[Aerows]

178. It's like a minefield

You never know what might actually be in what they are serving. Some of it is sumptuous and delicious, some of it is like "surprise, I'm going to murder your taste buds and scar you for life" and you never know which it will be!

[countryjake]

184. I have to admit that after I left home, I often fooled my mean old mother...

when going back for family functions, by showing up with a dish full of "Pink Fluff" or "Green Fluff" which she always ate with gusto (those are the meatless, sweet versions of an easy jello concoction). I never had the heart to tell her that she was actually eating wicked Jello (insert evil laugh, here).

[shanti]

177. it's a 50's thing

i'm 60 and remember mom making that disgusting lime jello mold with cottage cheese suspended in it. i never touched it. she didn't make it after the 60's, if i remember correctly.

[beveeheart]

216. Mom added crushed pineapple

and pecans to it. I liked it and even made it a few times.

[beam me up scottie]

30. The one on the left looks like dog vomit made into a bowl with dog food in it.

And the pic on the right looks like an alien eyeball on a bed of cat food inside a slimy sponge cake.

Who came up with this stuff?

[Aerows]

46. It's damned frightening, isn't it?

Good lord, I don't even want to get into the throw-up gravy one aunt insisted on making. What a damn waste of turkey stock.

I call it that because it looked like someone hurled breakfast. Eggs, something I do not know what it was and don't want to, pureed or something, with unidentifiable meat parts.

[beam me up scottie]

50. Honestly I'd be afraid to serve it to my dogs and cats, it might traumatize them.

Those are examples of what I consider to be actual "frankenfood".

Good food doesn't need to be pretty (except for dessert), it needs to be presentable, smell good and taste even better.

[demwing]

186. The good folks at Jello

That's who

[beam me up scottie]

187. I pity the taste testers. Tuna and jello?

[demwing]

190. I dislike jello intensely, even when it's dessert

Salty jello?

[Laffy Kat]

132. Ewww. Is that cat food in the center of the ring?

I shouldn't criticize, though. My family enjoys a "Coke Salad" that has black cherry jello, a bottle of coke, bits of cream cream, toasted pecan pieces, Bing cherries, and pineapple tidbits with its juice throughout. It's yummy and it looks a lot prettier than the good ole green ring.

[Freddie]

154. That one's good

Mom always made orange jello with cream cheese, pineapple or canned fruit cocktail, walnuts and mini marshmallows. She called it salad but it tasted like dessert to me.

[Aerows]

172. Holy Cow.

I've seen that at the family reunion.

I don't like coca-cola, and I've never been a fan of sweets, but that getting infested on my plate was a nightmare.

[Laffy Kat]

194. LOL. I guess it's something you had to grow up eating to appreciate!

It's actually not bad and I don't like Jello.

[RKP5637]

8. I remember Jello with carrots, way back, but fortunately there was no mayo. OMG

it seems we used to get this in the school cafeteria.

[Aerows]

18. Oh yeah

it's that horrible dish that makes you not even want to eat the rest of lunch because it is so nasty.

Now imagine people dropping a big plop of mayonnaise of all things on it?

[Laurian]

20. My mother made orange jello with shredded carrots and pineapple.

That was fifty years ago, but I remember eating it without complaint. No mayo though.

[RKP5637]

27. LOL, I didn't want to date myself, but yep, it was pretty common back then. Sometimes it

was also lime green. Actually, as I recall, it didn't taste that bad, but HOLD THE MAYO please!

[femmocrat]

35. I remember something like that called "Perfection Salad".

My aunt always made it. I always avoided it. No mayo on it.

[RobinA]

153. That Thing

is damn good. Sorry, Jello lover here. Hold the mayo!

[dem in texas]

215. Perfection Salad made from Scratch - So Good

It is made with plain gelatin and has vinegar in it, it is not sweet, but it is crunchy with a the raw veggies in it. But no Mayo!

I haven't eaten Perfection salad in years, haven't made it since the 1960's, but now I am thinking about it.

I don't like the Jello and cool whip concoctions.

I have a friend who is a cookbook publisher and she told me when they do photographs for a Scandinavian cookbook, they have to include some red Jello dishes because all the foods are covered in white sauces or creams and they need some color in the pictures.

[winter is coming]

61. Mine did, too. I like it. Fortunately, no mayo. n/t

[Kilgore]

29. It's mandatory on T-day when I was a kid.

Orange jello with shredded carrots and grapes was always on Moms table in the 60's and 70's Usually served with a bit of Cool Whip.

Mayo sounds horrid!!

[RKP5637]

36. I can't imagine Mayo!

[3catwoman3]

106. I, unfortunately, remember...

...Jello with peas often served at my high school cafeteria.

[RKP5637]

157. OMG!

[3catwoman3]

161. To make matter worse...

...they were canned peas, which are bad enough on their own. The stuff was truly vile.

[RKP5637]

182. ...

[Aerows]

204. See, canned pees

My Lord. Suspend them in Jello, plop mayonnaise on it and you would have to be nuts to eat is.

But somehow the chef thought someone would be open to attempting to do so.

[enlightenment]

10. The mayo is the problem.

And the Jell-O.

The vegetables seem okay . . .

Could be worse. Could be seafood. Behold the Jell-O Lobster Terrine.

[Aerows]

13. Okay. That whole situation

there is the problem. It's the mayo, it's the jello it's the olives looking like eyes.

It's like you are presented with an extraterrestrial species, not sure if it's dead, and certainly don't want to poke it.

[enlightenment]

24. Made me laugh out loud. :)

I'm with you on the alien bit - I think this is where the Dr. Who writers come up with their ET baddies . . . old copies of the Jell-O recipe booklets.

[RKP5637]

32. OMG!!! THAT IS FREAKY! Looks like some kind of alien crab that climbed outta the sea!

[beam me up scottie]

53. Holy mackerel that's frightening.

[Aerows]

59. Shh!

Don't say mackerel, they will think of something even worse to put in a Jello mold!

[beam me up scottie]

75. No kidding!

The only way they could have made that worse is if they had the legs sticking out of the ... whatever that is supposed to be.

[enlightenment]

76. *Snork!*

The pun is strong with you, grasshopper!

[gvstn]

133. I can't not comment on that.

I think that is one of the worst food dishes I have ever seen.

I don't know if Emeril Lagasse still has a show but when I think of steaming up six lobsters and 2 pounds of shrimp, some mussels or something maybe some spicy sausage and then I look at that, I want to cry.

I hope it didn't make the Junior League cookbook.

[Hekate]

138. Somebody worked all day to make that abomination

[enlightenment]

197. And someone else probably ate it.

Because somebody worked all day to make it.

THAT was true love.

[Hekate]

198. Indeed it is.

[MineralMan]

12. I grew up eating that stuff.

Not no more {sic}…

[Aerows]

14. See?

I have another one who has witnessed holiday horrors.

[MineralMan]

21. I was born in 1945.

I was subjected to all the horrors of post-war women's magazine recipes. Holiday meals included many inedible concoctions, all made by aunts. As children, we hat to eat them, so as not to disappoint said aunts.

My mother, thank goodness, was not taken in by all that.

[Aerows]

23. I was born in the 70's

But sometimes it takes those of us in the South a while to catch up, and manners dictate that you at least pretend like you are going to eat it.

[yardwork]

34. Pretend like you are going to eat it.... I love that!

Southerners are so good in these situations.

[Aerows]

39. We have to be

This entire thread is a demonstration of why you have to get really talented with napkins, turning over your iced tea glass, or retreating the ladies' room.

[longship]

180. It could be worse, MM. There's always lutefisk.

Baked cod jello cured in lye and smothered in cream sauce.

It gives me the willies just thinking about it. And my father was Norwegian! I'll take the pickled herring though, served on knackebröd.

My best to you this Thanksgiving.

[MineralMan]

192. I've eaten lutefisk a couple of time, to be polite.

Can't say I enjoyed a lot, though.

[Aerows]

207. The things we do to be polite.

Lord. I know, we have to be polite, but damn, you just know something is coming to the table that scares you to death.

[ms liberty]

15. Yes, I saw that in the food thread...

I had never heard of it before, slathering mayo on jello? Just reading it made me want to throw up. I'd heard of fruit in jello, and some veggies in jello but have never eaten it because well, it sounds disgusting. But the mayo really elevates it to a level of repulsion heretofore unimagined in my worst nightmares. I don't like mayo anyway and only use it sparingly in chicken or potato salad, or deviled eggs. Jello isn't a favorite of mine either.
Edited to add that this thread is epic!

[Aerows]

26. I know it's hard to believe

It's even harder to believe somebody would foist that off on their family members.

[Retrograde]

104. I've heard of mixing mayo into the jello, but not on top

Luckily, my mother was a very reluctant cook, and the worse we ever got was fruit-in-jello salad, or maybe carrots in jello.

I once accidentally made jello: I was cooking a pig's foot for stock, and after I took the strained liquid out of the fridge the next day it was solid.

[blogslut]

123. That's why packaged gelatin was such a wonder.

Used to be that the rich were the only ones with time and money to boil down animal bones and connective tissue to make it. When the powdered and sheet forms showed up on shelves, the proles went nuts.

There's this really great show from Britain called 'The Supersizers Go' (playing on Hulu) where Sue Perkins and Giles Coren spend a week living and eating as people from different eras in history. Oh man, there is so very much 'jelly'.

[Retrograde]

127. I'm a Supersizers fan!

It's available on youtube as well. They go into gelatin in the Elizabethan and Victorian episodes, showing how much work went into making those elaborate desserts.

There's a Jello-O museum in LeRoy, NY. I went there once with my mother and sister, and despite not one but two "Open" signs in front of it it was locked up tight.

[blogslut]

129. I adore Sue Perkins.

Sorry about the Jello-O museum. I bet that would have been a kick.

Have you ever had agar? It's a vegetable gelatin made from seaweed. It's firmer than Jello-O but it can be flavored sweet or savory. There's a Japanese dessert called Mitsumame that's made with sweetened agar cubes topped with fruit, light syrup and adzuki beans. Subtly sweet but I love the texture.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsumame

[NuttyFluffers]

146. i've had it. also kombu kelp is used for gelatinous thickening.

useful for making a vegetarian/vegan consommé, or generally just thickening a broth.

if you leave it in water it makes like a mucus, like okra!

(yes, i've eaten this too.)

[blogslut]

148. That makes sense.

I can see where homemade vegetable broth would need a little gel to give it substance.

[CTyankee]

183. I grew up eating slimy cooked okra, whiskers and all. I loved it. Hubby hates the whole idea

of it. Texan vs. Wisconsin.

[3catwoman3]

155. IIRC, agar is also what bacteria are grown on...

...in petri dishes.

[blogslut]

156. Yep

Many uses.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agar

[uppityperson]

16. We called it moldy carrot jello

[Aerows]

19. So you know of what I speak

See, I am not the only one that has seen such a catastrophe.

[yardwork]

25. Not only that, it's considered a vegetable! It's salad!

No Midwestern church supper is complete without lime jello and celery salad. Sometimes has some kind of weird canned meat in it too. That makes it an entree.

[Aerows]

28. See?

This is what I am talking about.

[kiva]

40. An interesting book

Farming the Home Place http://www.amazon.com/Farming-Home-Place-Community-California/dp/0801481155 by Valerie Matsumoto about the Japanese Cortez Colony in the San Joachin Valley. It's an excellent book, but at the end there are several recipes made by the Japanese and Japanese-American women before and after WWII...and the most common ingredient? Jello.

[meow2u3]

43. Utterly gross

[Aerows]

55. Understand, as well

that my description doesn't even begin to describe the magnificent catastrophe it looked like, sitting there among real food. It's as though it was crouching to leap up and ruin everything delicious on the table.

[Igel]

47. I've lived the nightmare.

My mother made it every Thanksgiving.

Red jello. Walnuts. Fruit cocktail. Some sort of whipped stuff on it, white and nasty. On a bed of lettuce leaves.

She would always insist it tasted good and I'd like it as she plopped a slice (yes, it sliced ... the horrors) on my plate, where the hot turkey gravy would melt the jello and release the fruit cocktail and walnuts. The white whipped stuff would sort of dissolve.

The early 60s lived on in my mother's dining room into the '70s ...

No mayo that I'm aware of. (Maybe the white stuff ... Nah.)

About the same time the jello molds vanished (should that be "moulds"?) Ma got tired of the same old-same old stuffing. And the mayo turned up in the turkey stuffing.

The more things change, the more they stay

[Aerows]

52. Oh god.

In the stuffing?

I have lost faith in humanity.

[Arugula Latte]

56. This is bringing back memories. I had the same experience.

I remember the red jello melting all over the plate. And the walnuts. I'd forgotten those.

[blogslut]

58. My mom made something similar

Red jello, maybe cherry flavor, with fresh halved grapes, cubed pineapple and walnuts. I didn't hate it but it was the homemade whipped cream, she served with it, that I loved.

[Aerows]

69. In American English it's mold.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#safe=off&q=mold+definition

1.
a hollow container used to give shape to molten or hot liquid material (such as wax or metal) when it cools and hardens.
synonyms: cast, die, form, matrix, shape, template, pattern, frame
"the molten metal is poured into a mold"
2.
a distinctive and typical style, form, or character.
"he planned to conquer the world as a roving reporter in the mold of his hero"
synonyms: character, nature, temperament, disposition; More
verb
3.
form (an object with a particular shape) out of easily manipulated material.
"a Connecticut inventor molded a catamaran out of polystyrene foam"
synonyms: shape, form, fashion, model, work, construct, make, create, manufacture, sculpt, sculpture; More

[Arugula Latte]

54. I remember my mom making jello with grated carrots and green grapes suspended in it.

Pineapple, too, I think. And there was some sort of cream cheese part to it. Oh, the wonders of 70s foods.

[dhill926]

70. ah yup, same thing...um, thanks for the memories....

not really haha...it was vile. Couldn't even eat it stoned....

[blogslut]

57. I'm bringing Almond Float to T-Gives

It's a light gelatin dessert made with (gulp) milk, almond flavoring, mandarin oranges and maraschino cherries. It's a recipe that my mom got from some ladies magazine or her trusty Betty Crocker cookbook. It's delicious and old school and, come at me, I don't care!

[BlueJazz]

64. As long as it doesn't have any of the aforementioned Alien Eyes floating around in it, it's a winner

[blogslut]

77. There are many variations on it.

It's supposed to have originally been a Chinese dessert. Some people add fruit cocktail or lychees or both and while Mom's version added the canned mandarin juice some recipes call for adding 7up.

For my taste, I would prefer just the mandarin oranges/juice added but the cherries add just the right bit of color. I drain and rinse the cherries first so they don't discolor the dish.

[BlueJazz]

82. I remember eating with a friend of mine at Thanksgiving. His mom had something like that ..

...with coconut and walnut and pecans in it. Pretty darn good!

[2theleft]

97. We call that ambrosia I think...

My family makes that with marshmallows, cool whip, coconut, cherries, pineapple, mandarin oranges. No jello.

[Aerows]

65. That sounds like it might be good - not dissing Jello, it's just the *THINGS* people do to it.

You have to understand - Green Jello with cabbage in suspension and mayonnaise.

Come at me if you think you could keep that down.

Hell, I take it back - don't come at me. I wouldn't subject a fellow DUer to eating lime jello, cabbage with mayonnaise on top.

I just wouldn't.

[blogslut]

88. It's okay. I won't come at you.

However, I will be using mayo




















as a release agent for the gelatin.

[Aerows]

181. What is a release agent? n/t

[Hekate]

188. Almond Float actually sounds good.My sister in law makes this thing with Cool Whip that I cannot eat

I adore my SIL and she's like 20 years younger than me and I have no idea how this recipe entered her repertoire unless it's a Utah Thing...

Anyway, in a Cool Whip base fold in canned fruit cocktail and canned mandarin oranges and maraschino cherries. It does have some ingredients in common with your recipe but I think I like yours better!

My husband really loves it though.

[blogslut]

193. Thank you.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

[central scrutinizer]

60. I have the 1963 Joy of Jello Cookbook

The Crown Jewel was always a hit but it was just Jello and whipped cream. Mixing it with vegetables, tuna, or mayonnaise is disgusting.

[hobbit709]

62. Jello is something I can't stand no matter what is in it.

[jmowreader]

63. Keep the mayo please, but jello with carrots is okay

I make a killer rainbow jello salad...not sure if you have time to make this before Thanksgiving, but if you do, it looks good and tastes good.

You need:
seven different flavors of jello that are not all the same color - get the small boxes
a quart of Greek yogurt
six different kinds of fresh fruit that are NOT pineapple, kiwi, mango, papaya, figs or guava - if you want these, use canned fruit - and maybe nuts if you're into that
the biggest glass serving bowl you have

Make the first flavor of jello with 3/4 cup of hot and 3/4 cup of cold water (as opposed to two full cups), put it in the bowl, let it cool half an hour or so and add the first flavor of fruit. Let it set.

Make the second flavor of jello with 3/4 cup hot water and 3/4 cup yogurt. Add the second fruit and gently ladle it into the bowl on top of the first batch of jello. Let set.

The third layer is made with water, the fourth with yogurt, all the way to the top. The topmost layer of jello gets no fruit.

[JI7]

68. The mayo is what makes it sound gross

[Aerows]

74. Absolutely

I don't know why any human being would do that to their sense of smell and their taste buds.

[MrMickeysMom]

71. We used to make that at the Morrison's cafeteria...

My first real job was to learn from Mary, the salad lady... This was her specialty!!!!

[Aerows]

73. Did you dice the lime jello

into perfect cubes?

[MrMickeysMom]

102. No, but we had something that was called

jello compost... (yes, yes, we did so)

[Aerows]

109. Oh God

I ate at Piccadilly quite a few times. I wonder what on earth was in their food!

[MrMickeysMom]

117. Doesn't it make you hungry for THIS?

G'aahhh!

[Blue_In_AK]

72. When my mom and dad were still alive,

they always had us kids and a family friend couple over for Thanksgiving. The family made some kind of green jello concoction with pineapple, whipped cream, and some other stuff in it. I don't know what all. We just called it "the green stuff," but it was really delicious. I wish I had gotten the recipe from her before she died.

[beam me up scottie]

78. Get a load of this beauty:

[Aerows]

85. Can I please

not have any of that?

[beam me up scottie]

93. It looks like one of the salamanders I used to find in the basement.

Except we didn't eat them.

[Oneironaut]

105. That thing should be exorcised and then burned.

Olives in Jello? Clearly the work of an evil genius with a vendetta against the world.

[beam me up scottie]

141. I'd use a flame thrower.

No telling what that thing might do if you got too close.

[countryjake]

189. Now is the time for your "Holy Mackerel" comment, beamie!

After reading this far down in this hilarious thread, I find myself slightly amazed that some of the young un's recollections don't include Jello dishes prepared with meat...such things used to be an actual staple main entree at normal group gatherings where I grew up.

We had one family friend who everyone borrowed that same fish mold from and tho I've had it served containing the standard canned tuna or salmon, one of my aunts who had their own stocked pond on their dairy farm used to make it with fresh-caught catfish or bass and she always stuck the fish's actual eyeballs on as her final farmer's wife touch.

[beam me up scottie]

191. Yikes!

My mother was never big on jello, just as a desert. I didn't care for it even before I became a vegetarian.

My mom did talk about a friend from Romania who liked fish eye soup though.

[Tree-Hugger]

205. Jesus wept nt

[beam me up scottie]

206. Fishes and loaves. :)

[Tree-Hugger]

210. In the Jell-o? ;)

[beam me up scottie]

211. WWJJ? What would Jesus Jello? Another one - Ring Around the Tuna:

[Tree-Hugger]

212. Dear God

So, this had me googling "Jesus Jell-o" and "Jesus Jell-o salad."

[beam me up scottie]

213. Sounds like a punk band!

[Tree-Hugger]

214. I should trademark that

Jesus Jell-o Salad®™© to cover my bases.

Actually, "Jesus Jell-o salad" sounds like something my Irish Mum-mum would yell in lieu of the usual "JesusMaryandJoseph!"

[beam me up scottie]

221. Perfect!

Kind of like Jesus on a trailer hitch!

[Ilsa]

79. A discontinued jello flavor, something like blackberry

would be mixed with coca-cola and cream cheese and whipped cream and cherry pie filling? Anyway, the flavors would combine and then separate into layers. It was weird, and southern homemakers all rushed out and bought all of that remaining discontinued jello flavor. Ugh.

[3catwoman3]

122. Oh, $h!t. I remember that $h!t.

I think it may have been black cherry, the taste of which I cannot abide to this day.

[neverforget]

81. My brothers went to Catholic grade school and they tell how they had to

eat vegetable jello all the time.

[Hekate]

84. Ugh. No to the mayo. My mom did orange jello with grated carrots, walnuts, raisins. Not bad.

It was a1950s-1960s thing, you had to be there. Later on she got all fancy and did a thing with cranberries and raspberry jello. That one got the cream cheese on top.

But mayo? My tongue is cringing.

[Blue_In_AK]

86. Mayo isn't as bad as Miracle Whip.

Yuck.

[Aerows]

90. 3 other people (1 of them is me)

Attested that I am not hallucinating and this travesty occurred.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7374067

[Hekate]

94. Oh, I believe you! Part of it was the era because Jello was once a colorful novelty.

Why it got to be a real regional specialty I cannot say.

[Aerows]

96. Regional specialty?

More like regional crime!

[Recursion]

91. Oh yeah. I had that every Christmas. You get used to it.

Not as bad as it sounds, really.

[Aerows]

92. I'll stick to eating bugs

if that is what I am reduced to!

[Shrike47]

98. Personally, I put on a layer of whipped, sweetened, cream cheese.

My family, in the 50's, eschewed the jello stuff but I added it in to my family table. I think it's funny.

[Aerows]

99. Cream Cheese

is a far cry from mayonnaise!

[Juicy_Bellows]

101. The real kicker is people sometimes call this Ambrosia (food of the Gods).

Well you know them Gods:



They must be crazy!

[woodsprite]

103. The worst combo was one my MIL made - raspberry jello and tomatoes

Topped with a fluffy mayo-like topping. There were 17 of us there for dinner and I remember 15 of us trying to figure a way to ditch it or push it around on our plate so it looked like we ate some of it. Yuck! It was nasty.

[Aerows]

114. Holy Cow!

I can't stand it when I seem my family members put mayo on tomatoes.

Add raspberry Jello?

I'm beginning to believe that they must all be in a culinary cult of darkness.

[3catwoman3]

121. That sounds completely...

...revolting.

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

107. Oh dear me

Yes, I remember these monstrosities. Over the last ten years or so, I've been buying, cooking and eating whole foods and now I marvel at just how much artificial coloring and flavoring was in my childhood normal diet. My husband, heard me laughing, looked at the pics and asked me if this was real. He is a Brit and apparently these culinary horror never made it across the pond. I remember my grandma eating a ring of tomato aspic filled with cottage cheese and topped with mayo. She could never even get me to taste it.

[Solly Mack]

108. Pineapple Jello with carrots & topped with mayo.

I never doubted its existence. Seen it with my own eyes.

[Aerows]

111. And here we go.

Childhood trauma in one jpg.

[Solly Mack]

113. Saw it at family gatherings and church socials.

Always avoided it.

[YOHABLO]

112. I think you are a g-d damn snob. Some people like congealed salad. SO WHAT?

Does that make them BAD people? Let people eat what they like to eat and STFU.

[Aerows]

116. Okay.

I'll save my portion of mayo on Jello suspended vegetables just for you.

[YOHABLO]

124. I like mayo. Seems you have a problem with it.

[Aerows]

126. It runs deep.

My replies are exhibit A.

Mayo and Jello with vegetables suspended in it is obscene.

Deep problems with mayo

[eallen]

115. Is this like... some kind of strange threat?

"If you don't start believing, we'll make you eat this at Thanksgiving?"

You are so not invited...

[Aerows]

120. You have to show up

You have to appease the person that introduced this threat, and do everything under the sun to avoid eating it.

Thats the mission

[Aerows]

125. LMAO!

I was teasing, I hope you realize

[azurnoir]

118. Long ago they made vegetable flavored Jello

[shanti]

179. now that is vomit inducing

i suppose it's closer to aspic.

[Iris]

222. That explains a lot about some of the pictures on this thread.

I'm assuming these weren't exactly sweet.

[NightWatcher]

119. My grandma called hers "sunshine salad" it was orange jello

and orange bits floating amongst the cream cheese and other stuff.

I miss her but not that stuff.

[immoderate]

128. You don't have to be Donald Trump — to know Jell-o is DISGUSTING.

Shots get a pass, though.



--imm

[jberryhill]

130. Abomination

[adnoid]

131. James Lileks compiled the definitive works on these horrors...

Decorum probably dictated the omission of any mayo tainted species.

http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/knox/index.html

http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/jello/index.html

[cemaphonic]

164. That website is so great.

Everyone in this thread should read it.

[bbgrunt]

134. but, but, but....there's ALWAYS room for congealed animal bones and connective tissue!

[laundry_queen]

135. I remember this

I was born in the 70's but have a good memory - this stuff showed up at every church gathering I went to when I would visit my grandparents (my parents were not church goers) and often at our extended family gatherings. I distinctly remember the first time I tried it - I must've been about 4. I saw jello and got all excited. It had whipped cream and everything! I told my mom I wanted jello. She warned me. "That is not dessert jello, that is salad jello and I don't think you'll like it." No matter, nothing she said could change my mind. I had to have the jello!

I remember the first horrendous bite - the cabbage, the carrots and then the lime. EW! I was so disappointed I cried. Thankfully, my mom didn't make me finish it like she normally would. She sure snickered a lot though. I do remember enjoying the whipped cream. It was cool whip which was a novelty to me back then. I don't think the one I tried had mayo.

I don't think I've seen such a thing at gatherings anymore though in the last decade and a half. I thought that horrendous fad had died out. I guess not.

I still dislike mixing savory and sweet. It took the longest time for me to even consider berries on a salad, lol. It probably stems from the lime jello salad experience, no doubt.

[Aerows]

201. The trauma

prevents me from ever eating mayo without suspicion.

[Le Taz Hot]

139. Anyone bringing ANYTHING to my Thanksgiving table

has to go outside in the patio and eat with the cats (pray that they'll share their kibbles with you). I spend WEEKS planning the menu, make everything from scratch (including the bread that will be cut up into croutons for the dressing) so, no, I don't need anyone's additions. One year someone had the gall to bring a store-bought pumpkin pie which looked pretty stupid among the homemade chocolate, butternut squash, minced meat, pecan, apple, and cherry pies not to mention the blackberry cobbler. Needless to say, no one ate the store-bought pumpkin. Store bought pies! Ptewie!

[bettyellen]

140. you know why they got to be such a big thing in the fifties and sixties? technology....

after WW2 suddenly everyone had modern refrigerators, and they wanted to use them!

[Aerows]

202. And *THIS* is what some of them

did with that technology.

Good Lord. You can make coffee easily, store foods and you mix meat, vegetables and mayonnaise into Jello-O.

We do not use technology responsibly when it is first introduced. Mayonnaise Jell-O salad is the result.

[bettyellen]

217. technology creates some novelty fads that probably should never happen...

if something new can happen, someone will try and sell it to you!

[KG]

142. more recipes here in the gallery of regrettable foods:

http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/

[beam me up scottie]

145. Run away!

Alfresco Olive Salad (olives, carrots, potatoes with California dressing) || Bad and Ugly of Retro Food: The Gift of Salads (from the South) Y'all.

[Buns_of_Fire]

147. Now I don't feel so guilty about tinting the deviled eggs black.

My mother would make this once a week or so. She thought it would be an inducement for me to eat my vegetables. Wrong.

But at least she stopped short of "Vienna Sausage Surprise".

[Vinca]

149. I haven't seen that particular dish since the 1960's.

You just ruined my day by reminding me of my stepmother. The old bat's idea of haute cuisine was creamed eggs on toast.

[Android3.14]

151. There's a term for people who bring jello dishes to the feast.

Bad cooks.

[tblue37]

160. Yep. It was all the rage in the 1960s and 1970s, and some people who grew up then

feel nostalgic about it and still include it in holiday feasts.

It is called "sunshine salad."

[seaglass]

162. Aerows your thread inspired me to make Cherry Coke Salad - I love it! No vegetables

but there is cherry jello.

[Aerows]

200. Well I hope the people

at your table don't experience spontaneous combustion attempting to be as polite as they can to avoid eating it. There is just no reason to go there.

[seaglass]

224. My family is not that polite. It's a dish my husband's aunt used to make and I don't think we've

had it since she died. That could be intentional, I will find out.

[KamaAina]

163. Outside Utah?!

For some reason, Utah is to Jell-O what NOLA is to actual food.

[Aerows]

165. I'm a proud heretic that despises these

types of Utah foods. I grew up in New Orleans, but still had a bunch of relatives in Mississippi that ate things that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

Good GOD you cannot imagine what they do with the giblets. You just really CANNOT.

[Thor_MN]

166. Say what you will, but my mother makes a jello containing dish for Thanksgiving that is good.

I don't know the exact details but it has, I think, crushed pineapple and cranberry sauce in a cherry jello base with a whipped cream/cream cheese "frosting" topped with toasted pecans. I think Ginger Ale is used as the cool "water" in making the base.

My grandmother's would come with some FrankenJello combos back in the day (grated carrots in lime jello with whipped cream on top) but my mom's jello "salad" is actually good. A slightly tart taste that plays well off of Turkey and gravy.

[xmas74]

174. One) I already knew about this-I grew up in Wisconsin

and jello is a food group.

Two) went to a party a few years ago and all the food was from sixties era cookbooks. Lots of various jello molds with fruit, meat and veg. Sounds disgusting but a few actually weren't awful.

[BainsBane]

176. MN here. I've never seen jello with meat

but I concur on the rest.

[xmas74]

218. I remember seeing the tuna with the lemon jello.

It had onions and celery in it with a mayo ring. The lemon is the lightest tasting so I understand the use of it but I still never tried it until recently.

[BainsBane]

219. All I can say

is I'm grateful my grandmother never saw that recipe.

[Aerows]

185. Key point - a *few* weren't

*many* on the other hand ...

[BainsBane]

175. My grandmother used to make it

and I have eaten it. That's what used to pass for salad in the upper Midwest.

[Rex]

195. That sounds absolutely horrible!

El Barfo!

[malaise]

196. ROFL

I pass Happy Thanksgiving!!

[Aerows]

209. Oh, come on

Tell me you don't want to include such monstrosities into your own traditions!

[Tree-Hugger]

208. This thread

This thread is the stuff of nightmares. I want my mom.

Actually, I am going yo ask my mom if she remembers these horrors from way back in her day.

Disclaimer: I think Jell-o is one of the most vile substances on the planet, so I am prejudiced against anything made with it automatically. But.....mayo, FISH, cottage cheese.......that just makes the Baby Jesus cry.

Aerows - I thought of you this evening. I was behind a lady in line and she had Jell-o boxes AND mayo. Coincidence, I am sure, as she also had bread and lubchmeat. Still, I shuddered a bit thinking of your posts.

[DeadLetterOffice]

220. "Weird food we used to make with Jell-O during the holidays"

http://www.metv.com/stories/vintage-jello-holiday-ads-and-recipes

Again with the mayo...