Gelatin dessert
 |
A variety of pre-packaged gelatin dessert products for sale at a supermarket in the U.S. state of Wisconsin in 2004 |
The most popular culinary use for
gelatin is as a main ingredient in a variety of
gelatin desserts. In the
United Kingdom,
Australia and
South Africa gelatin desserts are referred to as
jelly (In the
United States and
Canada, "jelly" refers to an unrelated product - a
pectin thickened clear fruit preserve). Gelatin desserts are also commonly referred to by the trademarked name,
Jell-O.
Unprepared gelatin for desserts is often marketed as a flavored powder. Prepared gelatin desserts are marketed in a variety of forms. Popular brands include Jell-O from
Kraft Foods in North America, Rowntree's Jelly in the
United Kingdom and Aeroplane Jelly in
Australia.
Although gelatin has been used for many years, the preparation of dessert jellies from gelatin flakes is a laborious process, involving boiling the gelatin with egg whites. The first powdered gelatin for use in desserts was patented in
1845 by
Peter Cooper. He did not market his product very effectively, though, and in
1897 sold the patent to cough syrup manufacturer Pearle B. Wait. Wait's wife named the product "Jell-O". The Waits sold Jell-O in strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon flavors. In
1899 Wait sold the business to a neighbor, Orator Francis Woodward, for $450. From around
1900 Jell-O was sold by the Genesee Pure Foods Company (later the Jell-O company, which joined
Postum to form the
General Foods Corporation, now a brand of
Kraft Foods inc.)
The production of gelatin starts with the boiling of bones, skins, and hides of pigs, horses and cows, in 70-foot vats to extract and hydrolyze the protein
collagen, which is then soaked and filtered. Horns or hooves are not used, as is traditionally thought. The extract is then dried and ground to form a powder, and is mixed with
sugar,
adipic acid,
fumaric acid,
sodium citrate, and artificial flavorings and
food colors. Because the collagen is processed extensively, the final product is not categorized as a meat or
animal product by the US federal government.
Eating tainted beef may have led to variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, but there are no known cases of variant CJD transmitted through collagen products such as gelatin.
A jello shot is a party food where some sort of alcohol, usually
rum,
vodka,
tequila or sometimes even
grain alcohol replaces some of the water or fruit juice used to congeal the gel. Jello shots are especially popular with drinkers who object to the taste of hard liquors, as the fruity taste of the shot is fairly effective at masking the strong taste of the alcohol.
The American mathematician and satirist
Tom Lehrer claims to have invented the Jello shot while working for the
National Security Agency, where he developed
vodka Jell-O as a way to circumvent a restriction of alcoholic beverages on base. [
1]
Some gelatinous desserts can be made with
agar instead of gelatin, allowing them to congeal more quickly and at higher temperatures. Agar, a vegetable product made from seaweed, is used especially in quick jelly powder mix and Asian jelly deserts, but also as an alternative that is acceptable to
vegetarians. Agar is more closely related to pectin and other gelling plant
carbohydrates than to gelatin.
Another
vegan or
vegitarian alternative to gelatin is
carageenan. This alternative sets more firmly than agar, and is often used in
kosher cooking. Though it, too, is a type of seaweed, it tends not to have an unpleasant smell during cooking like agar sometimes does.
* Jell-O is the official state
snack food of
Utah, which is reported to have the highest per capita sales of green gelatin dessert of any U.S. state. Over-fondness of Jell-O is often considered a cliché trait of
Mormons even in other areas. See
Jello Belt.
*
Bill Cosby is often associated with Jell-O because of the many commercials he made for Jell-O branded products.
*
Jello Biafra, a well known figure within the
punk community, took the first part of his stage name after the Jell-O brandname, and even ran for mayor of
San Francisco using the Jell-O ad campaign catchphrase,
"There's always room for Jello", as his campaign slogan.[
2]
* Jell-O sponsored
Jack Benny's radio comedy show in the 1930s and early 1940s; the program's official title during that period was
The Jell-O Show.
*
Kraft Foods: Jello history*
Cooper Union history page
