Jello

Leendalu got me started this morning with her Psychedelic Sixties menu and Tuna-Black Olive-Lime Jello reference. Then I wandered over to Rebecca's Pocket where Rebecca wrote about The Food Timeline. It's enough to know that marshmallows appeared around 2000BC - 500 years prior to chocolate. But skip all the fascinating stuff through the centuries down to 1897 and the link to Jello. Gelatin was patented in 1845 and in 1897 fruit flavored Jello made its debut in LeRoy, New York with strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon. An amazing variety of flavors have appeared and disappeared since then. Chocolate and Cola-flavor were particularly short lived.

And then there was the salad-dressing flavor I referred to in my comment to Leendalu. In 1953 Celery, Italian, Mixed Vegetable and Seasoned Tomato appeared. The Italian was a regular in my family, usually with cucumbers and grated carrots mixed in. In all honesty, my mother's cooking gave depth to the joke about how the British discovered the new world in search of a decent meal. I should add that, in contrast to the Jello salad, she did teach me to make a good fresh fruit salad with properly peeled and sectioned grapefruit, half grapes and apples and bananas added at the last minute and coated in the citrus juice to delay browning.