Jell-O Salad Recipes | Taste of Home (2024)

FAQs

What happened to Jello salads? ›

Jello salad fell out of fashion in the 1960s and 70s. The rise of Julia Child and the popularization of French cooking in the United States made the jello salad appear less elegant, and dieting trends eventually turned against sugary food like Jell-O.

The best Ambrosia Salad recipe is made with pineapple, mandarin oranges, yogurt, mini marshmallows, coconut and whipped cream. This easy side dish has a delicious tropical sweetness and is always a crowd favorite!

Empty whipped topping into a medium sized bowl. Sprinkle Jell-O over the top and fold in so it is well blended. Add cottage cheese and pineapple and fold into Jell-O mixture. Chill for about 4 hours so that the jello softens and slightly sets up.

Jell-O shifted to single-serve cups and more convenient options as competition for snacks and desserts grew. Kraft in the early 2000's shifted the focus of Jell-O's advertising away from kids and toward adults. It pitched sugar-free Jell-O, for example, as a treat for Atkins dieters.

The problem was, the new processed substitutes couldn't be sold on taste alone, as Shapiro makes clear in her book Something From the Oven: They just weren't as good as the real thing. But American palates had been adjusting to industrial flavors for the entire 20th century.

Ambrosia Salad Tastes Like Coconut, Watergate Salad Tastes Like Pistachio. One of the first things that sets ambrosia and Watergate salads apart is the flavor profile of each dish. Watergate salad uses a pistachio instant pudding packet and often calls for additional garnishings of pistachio on top.

Caesar Salad

It is a popular choice in many American restaurants and is often served as a side dish or a main course.

Why do hospitals serve so much Jell-O? There are a few reasons: Jell-O is easy to swallow and digest, making it suitable for patients who have difficulty eating solid foods or have digestive issues.

Bromolain in pineapple, papain in papaya and actinidin in kiwi are all enzymes capable of breaking down proteins, hence the warning that these fruits cannot be used in Jell-O. But canned fruits are fine because the pasteurization process they undergo destroys the proteolytic enzymes.

What should not be added to gelatin salad? ›

Just DO NOT include fresh pineapple, kiwi, papaya, figs, or guava (as the gelatin will not set).

Spraying the mold with Pam or some other cooking spray is another common trick, but one that may leave a residue and flavor on the Jell-O, which you may not want depending on what you are making. Certain molds, including newer plastic ones and some vintage molds, also come with removable seals to help with unmolding.

Jello molds are collectables for some folks, but you actually don't need any special mold for molded desserts. You can use a Bundt pan, a loaf pan, or even a mixing bowl to set large molded desserts, or small cups, ramekins, or even espresso cups for individual servings.

Runny gelatin desserts may as well just be sugar soup, so first let's cover what you did wrong. Chances are you didn't follow the directions exactly, adding too much water or watery fruit (via Butter With A Side Of Bread). Jell-O also won't set if left on the counter; it needs to chill in your refrigerator.

But in the decades after World War II ended, the problems that JELL-O had initially solved went away. Cheap food items did not impress a wealth-building American society, and wartime staples became repellant. In the 1970s, JELL-O languished as a children's snack and hospital dessert.

Raw pineapple and raw papaya should never be added to a gelatin (Jello) salad or mold. Enzymes in the fruit prevent the gelatin from setting up (getting firm). Loose salad greens should be stored between 36F and 41F. This keeps them crisp and fresh, but prevents freezing.