Jello salad
Encyclopedia
Salad
Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes, including vegetable salads; salads of pasta, legumes, eggs, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads. They may include a mixture of cold and hot, often including raw vegetables or fruits.Green salads include leaf...
made with flavored gelatin
Gelatin
Gelatin is a translucent, colorless, brittle , flavorless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and bones. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceuticals, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing. Substances containing gelatin or functioning in a similar...
, fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
and sometimes grated carrots or, more rarely, other vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s. Other ingredients may include cottage cheese
Cottage cheese
Cottage cheese is a cheese curd product with a mild flavor. It is drained, but not pressed, so some whey remains and the individual curds remain loose. The curd is usually washed to remove acidity, giving sweet curd cheese. It is not aged or colored. Different styles of cottage cheese are made from...
, cream cheese
Cream cheese
Cream cheese is a soft, mild-tasting, white cheese with a high fat content. Traditionally, it is made from unskimmed milk enriched with additional cream....
, marshmallows, nuts
Nut (fruit)
A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...
or pretzel
Pretzel
A pretzel is a type of baked food made from dough in soft and hard varieties and savory or sweet flavors in a unique knot-like shape, originating in Europe...
s.
Because of its many elements, the result has speckled bits of color against a colored gelatin background. For example, one might have lime green gelatin with brown nuts or pretzels, bits of white from cottage cheese, and red and orange from the fruit cocktail. Therefore, it has a "salad" appearance. The "salad" theme continues in variants containing mayonnaise
Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise, , often abbreviated as mayo, is a sauce. It is a stable emulsion of oil, egg yolk and either vinegar or lemon juice, with many options for embellishment with other herbs and spices. Lecithin in the egg yolk is the emulsifier. Mayonnaise varies in color but is often white, cream, or pale...
or salad dressing. When one uses plain gelatin instead of sweetened gelatin, then the use of vegetables becomes more common, such as in tomato
Tomato
The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...
aspic
Aspic
Aspic is a dish in which ingredients are set into a gelatin made from a meat stock or consommé. Non-savory dishes, often made with commercial gelatin mixes without stock or consommé, are usually called gelatin salads....
.
The name comes from the brand name Jell-O
Jell-O
Jell-O is a brand name belonging to U.S.-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 it being used as a generic term for gelatin dessert across the U.S. and Canada....
, a common gelatin product. Jell-O salads are a common feature of U.S. communal meals such as potluck
Potluck
A potluck is a gathering of people where each person or group of people contributes a dish of food prepared by the person or the group of people, to be shared among the group...
s, most probably because they are inexpensive and easy to prepare. In Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, where Jell-O is the official state snack, Jello salad is available in local restaurants such as Chuck-A-Rama
Chuck-A-Rama
Chuck-A-Rama is a chain of buffet restaurants based in Salt Lake City, Utah with eight restaurants in Utah and two in Idaho. Many of the items are what one would consider "home cooking" types of recipes rather than fine dining offerings...
. During the 2002 Winter Olympics
2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event that was celebrated in February 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Approximately 2,400 athletes from 77 nations participated in 78 events in fifteen disciplines, held throughout...
in Salt Lake City, the souvenir pins included one depicting green Jell-O.
See also
- Seafoam saladSeafoam SaladSeafoam salad, also known as orange salad, is a cafeteria and buffet staple popularized by F. W. Woolworth's lunch counters. Seafoam salad is often considered a dessert and is one of many dessert salads. It is composed of green gelatin, cream cheese, pears, maraschino cherries and whipped cream...
- Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese SurpriseLime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise"Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise" is a novelty song by William Bolcom, frequently sung by his mezzo-soprano wife, Joan Morris. It is based on his experiences, in his youth, of playing the piano for women's clubs, and being fed absurd and unappetizing cuisine, including foods...
, a humorous song about a gelatin salad