This wonderful booklet of recipes from 1930 had quite the exciting title!
Benefits from making JELL-O straight from the booklet:
Being ready hours ahead saves last-minute confusion
Meals never, never get monogamous
JELL-O is good for you and one of the easiest foods to digest
These desserts are “partified” in looks to make any meal as festive as a banquet
Make the cleverest salads ahead of company-time
What other dessert name is over 100 years old and still instantly recognized by literally everyone? Has a museum dedicated to it, was advertised by Ethyl Barrymore and their ads were illustrated by Norman Rockwell? JELL-O!
In 1845, Peter Cooper dabbled with and patented a product which was “set” with gelatin. Suffice it to say, it never did “jell” with the American public. In 1897, Pearle Wait, a carpenter in LeRoy, was putting up a cough remedy and laxative tea in his home. He experimented with gelatine and came up with a fruit flavored dessert which his wife, May, named Jell-O. He tried to market his product but he lacked the capital and the experience. In 1899 he sold the trademark to a fellow townsman for the sum of $450. The original Jell-O gelatin dessert (genericized as jello) is the signature of the brand. Today Jell-O is a registered trademark of Kraft Heinz.
By 1930, there appeared a vogue in American cuisine for congealed salads, and the company introduced lime-flavored Jell-O to complement the add-ins that cooks across the country were combining in these aspics and salads. Popular Jell-O recipes often included ingredients like cabbage, celery, green peppers, and even cooked pasta.
What could be yummier than Jellied (stewed) prunes in lemon JELL-O? Maybe a Corned Beef Loaf with corned beef, mustard and onions in JELL-O in a mold. Need a mold? Here’s an offer from the booklet. Just enclose 50 cents or stamps in an envelope to The JELL-O Company for both individual and a large size mold. But here’s the best part – they offer to send the molds in a hurry!
In 1934, sponsorship from Jell-O made comedian Jack Benny the dessert’s spokesperson. A jingle in which the spelling “J-E-L-L-O” was sung over a rising five-note musical theme was written by Don Bestor, who was the bandleader for Jack Benny on his radio program. My guess is you can remember it today.
A bit of trivia from the museum website:
Various elements were key to Jell-O becoming a mainstream product: new technologies, such as refrigeration, powdered gelatin and machine packaging, home economics classes, and the company’s marketing.
Noted artists such as Rose O’Neill, Maxfield Parrish, Coles Phillips, Norman Rockwell, Linn Ball, and Angus MacDonald made Jell-O a household word with their colored illustrations.
The first four Jell-O flavors were orange, lemon,strawberry, and raspberry. Lime was introduced in 1930.
Discovering this amazing “fact” was my favorite part of writng this post…
March 17, 1993, technicians at St. Jerome hospital in Batavia tested a bowl of lime Jell-O with an EEG machine and confirm the earlier testing by Dr. Adrian Upton that a bowl of wiggly Jell-O has brain waves identical to those of adult men and women.