Jell-O
JELL-O is a brand name belonging to USA-based Kraft Foods for a number of gelatin desserts, including fruit gels, puddings and no-bake cream pies. The brand's popularity has led to its becoming a generic term for gelatin dessert across the US and Canada.
Description
JELL-O is either a powder containing powdered gelatin, flavorings and sugar or artificial sweeteners, that is dissolved in boiling water, then chilled and allowed to set or pre-prepared pudding or gelatin that comes in a small plastic cup. Sometimes fruit, vegetables, whipped cream, or other ingredients are added to make often elaborate desserts that can be molded into any number of shapes. JELL-O must be refrigerated until served, and once set properly, it is normally eaten with a spoon.
The pudding line is cooked on a stovetop in hot milk, then chilled until it sets, or in the case of the instant pudding, simply dissolved in cold milk and then chilled. The no-bake pie line is generally mixed with milk and then poured into an included crust, and allowed to set in a refrigerator.
Production
The gelatin in JELL-O comes from the collagen in cow or pig bones and connective tissues. To make gelatin, manufacturers grind up these various parts and pre-treat them with either a strong acid or a strong base to break down cellular structures and release proteins like collagen. The resulting mixture is boiled, and as the collagen breaks down, the resulting product, gelatin, is easily extracted because it forms a layer on the surface of the boiling mixture.
History
Gelatin has been well known and used for many years. It was popularized in the Victorian era with spectacular and complex "jelly moulds". Previously, gelatin was sold in sheets and had to be purified, which was very time-consuming. In 1845, industrialist Peter Cooper (who invented the first steam-powered locomotive, the Tom Thumb), obtained a patent (US Patent 4084) for powdered gelatin derived from the bones of geese.[1]
Forty years later the patent was sold to a LeRoy, New York-based carpenter and cough syrup manufacturer Pearle B. Wait. He and his wife May added strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon flavoring to the powder and gave the product its present name in 1897. Unable to successfully market their concoction, in 1899 the Waits sold the business to a neighbor, Orator Francis Woodward, for $450.
Beginning in 1902, Woodward's Genesee Pure Food Company placed advertisements in the Ladies' Home Journal proclaiming Jell-O to be "America's Most Famous Dessert." Within a decade, three new flavors, chocolate (discontinued in 1927), cherry and peach, were added, and the brand was launched in Canada. Celebrity testimonials and recipes appeared in advertisements featuring actress Ethel Barrymore and opera singer Ernestine Schumann-Heink.
In 1923, the newly rechristened JELL-O Company launched D-Zerta, an artificially sweetened version of JELL-O. Two years later, Postum and Gennessee merged, and in 1927 Postum acquired Clarence Birdseye's frozen foods company to form the General Foods Corporation. By 1930, there appeared a vogue in American cuisine for congealed salads, and the company introduced lime-flavored Jell-O to complement the various add-ins that cooks across the USA were combining in these aspics and salads. By the 1950s, these salads would become so popular that Jell-O responded with savory and vegetable flavors such as celery, Italian, mixed vegetable and seasoned tomato. These savory flavors have since been discontinued.
In 1936, chocolate returned to the JELL-O lineup, this time as an instant pudding made with milk. It proved enormously popular and sponsorship from Jell-O made comedian Jack Benny the then dessert's spokesperson. Over time other pudding flavors were added such as vanilla, tapioca, coconut, pistachio, butterscotch, egg custard, flan and rice pudding.
New flavors continued to be added and unsuccessful ones were removed: in the 1950s and 1960s, apple, black cherry, black raspberry, grape, lemon-lime, mixed fruit, orange-banana, pineapple-grapefruit, blackberry, strawberry-banana, tropical fruit and more intense "wild" versions of the venerable strawberry, raspberry and cherry. In 1966, the Jell-O "No-Bake" dessert line was launched, which allowed a cheesecake to be made in 15 minutes. In 1971 pre-packaged prepared pudding called JELL-O Pudding Treats were introduced.
In 1974, comedian Bill Cosby became the company's pudding spokesperson, and continued to serve as the voice of Jell-O for almost thirty years. Over the course of his tenure as the mouthpiece for the company, he would hawk new products such as frozen Jell-O Pops (in both gelatin and pudding varieties); the new Sugar-Free Jell-O, which replaced D-Zerta and was sweetened with NutraSweet; Jell-O Jigglers concentrated gummi snacks; and Sparkling Jell-O, a carbonated version of the dessert touted as the "Champagne of Jell-O."
In 1989, General Foods was merged into Kraft Foods by parent company Phillip Morris (now the Altria Group). New flavors were continually introduced: watermelon, blueberry, cranberry, margarita and piña colada among others. In 2001 Jell-O was declared the "Official State Snack" of Utah, with Governor Michael O. Leavitt declaring an annual "Jell-O Week."
Today, there are more than 158 products sold under the Jell-O brand name and about 300 million boxes of Jell-O gelatin sold in the United States each year,
Jell-O is also used as a substantial ingredient in a well known dessert, the preperation of which requires a mold designed to hold Jell-O, and the depositing of small quantities of chopped fruit into the Jell-O before it hardens and takes on it's typical form.
Current flavors of Jell-O desserts
Gelatin
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Pudding
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Discontinued flavors of Jell-O brand desserts
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Cultural references
Jell-O was mentioned in the film Ghostbusters 2. When Winston is reminded that a supernatural 'goo' resembles Jell-O, he remarks that he hates Jell-O. Peter Venkman responds, "There's always room for Jell-O".
Samantha Carter of Stargate SG-1 has been seen to enjoy blue Jell-O on numerous occasions.
Jell-O powder was a primary ingredient in the green slime for the 1980s cult TV hit, You Can't Do That on Television.
Comedian Bill Cosby is usually associated with Jell-O and more famously, Jell-O pudding as he has appeared in many commercials promoting both. Shows like MAD TV and SNL, parody Cosby using Jello references like pudding pop.
See also
Further reading
- Kraft Foods: History of Jell-O
- Gelatin Manufacturers Institute of America
- Watch a Jell-O commercial by the Fifth Dimension, circa 1969 on Youtube
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