Grandma's Cream Cheese Jell-O Salad {Vintage Family Recipe} (2024)

FAQs

Why did people in the 50s eat so much Jell-O? ›

After World War II, when food shortages and rationing ended, gelatin became a creative kitchen tool, as well as a shortcut. Congealed molded dishes quickly earned a place at the table as impressive salads. According to Clark, mid-century meals had more courses than we serve at home today.

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.

“Jell-O salads first became popular in the 1930s but reached their highest expression as part of the processed food school of cooking that sprang up after the war,” said Wyman. This was an era of packaged foods and TV dinners, and it was the golden age of gelatin desserts.

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. It's smooth texture and mild flavor make it more tolerable for those with sensitive stomachs or who are recovering from surgery.

Utah eats more Jell-O than any other state

The people in Utah love their Jell-O! The state has an entire holiday week dedicated to the jiggly treat, and it's even Utah's official state food.

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.

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.

The jigger can be killed by suffocating it while it is inside the skin of the victim. This is done by washing of the feet with antiseptic and soap and thereafter applying hydrogen peroxide and oil around the infested areas.

Why do jiggers turn black? ›

As the female resides in the skin, she continues to lay eggs over about a two-week period and then dies. The death of the female flea is marked by a black scab or crust covering the initial point of entry into the skin.

Once burrowed, it looks like a small back dot and typically goes unnoticed. However, after a few days of feeding and filling with eggs, the jigger gets bigger and the dot grows into a bump that can be itchy and painful to walk on.

By the 1950s, salads became so popular that Jell-O responded with savory and vegetable flavors such as celery, Italian, mixed vegetable, and seasoned tomato.

Jell-O, particularly, was able to capitalize on the low prices of their products and the nostalgia women felt toward the aspics prepared by their grandmothers in the Victorian era.

Although the exact history of how Peter Cooper created the product is unknown to us today, we do know that in 1845 he secured a patent (US Patent 4084) for a gelatin dessert powder called “portable gelatin.” His invention was a basic edible gelatin that had no flavoring to it.

Many seniors may have difficulty swallowing, and jello is easy to consume. This is very important for when seniors have trouble swallowing medications and pills. A pill can be crushed up and stirred into jello for easy consumption, or pressed deep into the jello as a whole to help facilitate swallowing.

Weight-loss diets gained popularity in the 1950s. 'Despite the end of rationing, women were now encouraged to trim their figures with beach-body diets, pre-Christmas diets and even the steak diet! The difference with previous decades was about being trim and having the perfect body.

It was economical: A housewife could stretch her family's leftovers by encasing them in gelatin. And, since sugar was already included in the flavored mixes, the new packaged gelatins didn't require cooks to use up their household stores of sugar.

Jellied dishes become the perfect food. It's cheap, aesthetically pleasing (by the standards of the day), and relatively easy to prepare.