The Rise And Fall Of Jell-O

Jell-O was a household staple in the United States throughout the 20th century. Once the star of dinner parties, Jell-O is now served as shots to college students. From 2009 to 2018, Jell-O dropped $371 million in sales. We unpack what lead to its rise and fall.

MORE RISE AND FALL:
The Rise And Fall Of Juicy Couture
The Rise And Fall Of BlackBerry
The Rise And Fall Of Cadillac

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The Rise And Fall Of Jell-O

[The-biry]

My heart sank when it was mentioned that the inventor sold the patent for 450 dollars.

[madisonkelly]

My dad told me that when he was a baby my grandma would feed him jello instead of breastmilk, all because the town doctor recommended it. Crazy stuff, but gotta love Jello.

[AirQuotes]

Jello is delicious on its own don't put random crap in jello and then it's perfect. The only exception is fruit and alcohol.

[caitlinweiss]

Jello should advertise more to college students. They are broke but enjoy sweets and jello shots.

[coffeemug]

I just like the fact that my local shop sells this brand of jelly that does all these random flavours (but taste the same as the normal flavours) that no one buys and thus they go on sale for about 10p and it's great

[williamcomtois]

You've got admit the words Jell-O belt without context would be hilarious.

[abbyelliott]

I mean, if I was eating Jello filled with cheese and celery, I’d be depressed too

[MixiBerri]

I’m sorry but jello meals that aren’t desserts look disgusting

[leviturner]

The recipes in the Jell-O cookbooks from the 1920's, and 1930's are really good. There is two different ones that use coffee, and lemon Jell-O, that you add sugar to and have set. One of the two uses cream as well. It turns into essentially a latte Jell-O dessert.
Also whipped Jell-O is very good! It is almost entirely forgotten about. Many of the recipes ask for that preparation as well. You would let the Jell-O get cold, but not set then beat it until it is fluffy. It is amazing. Some of the recipes had you layer regular with the whipped. Very good.
The Jell-O salads are also good. I have made the Imperial Jell-O salad. It is lemon Jell-O with pineapple, cucumber, and pimentos. The Manhattan Jell-O salad is also good. I do not remember the flavor of Jell-O used, but you would put green apple, walnuts, and celery into it. One of the books also had a good recipe for cranberry Jell-O. It is similar to the jellied variety of cranberry sauce you get in a can. You would boil cranberries then put them through a sieve, the sweeten with sugar and add the cranberry pulp to lemon Jell-O.
I have also made a mint Jell-O from the book. It was okay. I believe you would boil mint in the water before making the Jell-O add a little vinegar, and make Lemon Jell-O with it. It did not have as much mint flavor as I would have hoped. Theoretically though it would have paired well with lamb. I also tried the tomato aspic mould from the Jell-O book. It was okay. I would make it again though it involved if I remember right a can of tomatoes, with onions then you would boil it or something then put it through a sieve and add it to the Lemon Jell-O. Most of the recipes used Lemon Jell-O.
One of my favorite Jell-O recipes came from the 1922 issue of the Jell-O recipe book. It was called Plum Pudding Jell-O. You would add 3/4 cup of bread crumbs, 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts, 3/4 cup of prunes, and 3/4 cup of raisins, a 1/4 cup of candied citron, and you would season it with nutmeg, and cinnamon I believe, then add it all to Lemon Jell-O and let it set. It smells like Christmas, and I try to make it every year for Christmas. My family loves it. After you retrieve it from the mould you would serve it with whipped cream or any sauce that you would serve on a regular plum pudding like hard sauce. Hard sauce if I remember the measurements correctly is just equal parts butter, and sugar that has been whipped.
Overall even though they may sound unappealing to modern tastes, I recommend giving them a try. It is a mental barrier. You have to think of it like this... peanut butter can be savory or it can be sweet. So can Jell-O, and gelatin in general. You have to get rid of the notion that it is always a dessert. Once you can do that, it is possible for you to enjoy it. Quite a few of the salad type Jell-O mould recipes will have you add a little vinegar to pair back the sweetness for these types of Jell-O moulds.
If you are following an old Jell-O recipe and it does not specify the size of the box of Jell-O then use the smaller one. At the time that was the only one available that is why they did not specify back then.

[AGL]

Didn’t know that Jello had such an interesting history. It jiggles my mind!

[lucaria]

Didn't know Jell-o's career was so wobbly.

[potterhead]

if jell-o started selling their own jell-o shots in liquor stores their sales would skyrocket

[lysan]

Strawberry jello cake has been a classic favorite dessert in our family for generations.

[charliedavis]

My family still makes our traditional Jell-O fruit salad for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Make two large boxes Jell-O with 3/4 cup to 1 cup less water. When it sets, whip well with a mixer. Mix in 2 large cans of well drained fruit cocktail and 2 cans (or more) mandarin oranges, chopped apples, bananas and a couple cups of whipped cream. It's the first thing to disappear, even before the pumpkin pie..

Does anyone else remember Jell-O poke cakes from the 70s and 80s? You baked a white cake, cooled it, poked holes all over with a fork, made a package of Jell-O, poured it over the cake, refrigerated it then "frosted" the cake with whipped cream. It seemed weird but was delicious. Those were my kids' favorite birthday cakes. Some of those 50s Jell-O salads, while they may not look appetizing today, were actually pretty good. I still love Jell-O on occasion.

[mikecude]

This makes me want jello. When I was a kid, my mom was single and we were super poor. I remember jello was a wonderful treat that we occasionally had.

[pinkpanda]

I’ll literally cry if I sit at the dinner table and my mom pull out some kind of monster veggie jelly and cheese

[DeputyCartman]

I love how this video didn't touch on the fact that college students aren't slurping down *JUST* Jello....

My granddad would make me a mason jar of just plain ol' Jello as a young boy. Very fond memories of that. No whipped cream, no salads or other such garbage, just jello and some fruit.

[daenas]

I love Jell-O and love using gelatin for various recipes. I make a mean ambrosia orange Jello-O dessert with marshmallows, oranges, pineapple, coconut and whipped cream. It's ALWAYS the first to disappear at potlucks and family gatherings.

[dannyy]

Jello should just turn itself into a marijuana edible

[morgang]

*jello parters w Bill Cosby for advertising*

Me: well that didn’t age well