Getting jiggly with it

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/07/2025 (441 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Saturday is Eat Your Jell-O Day.

In honour of this gelatinous holiday, we’ve done just that.

Below you’ll find Homemade recipes for sweet and savoury gelatin dishes submitted by Free Press readers, along with tasting notes from myself and colleagues Ben Sigurdson and Jen Zoratti.

But first, a brief history of “America’s most famous dessert.”

The use of gelatin in cooking dates back centuries. Previously considered an upper-class ingredient, owing to the labour involved in rendering animal bones, jellied dishes became a staple cuisine of 20th-century America thanks to the invention of “portable gelatin.”

Jell-O was trademarked in 1897 by carpenter and cough-syrup maker Pearle Wait in LeRoy, N.Y. — today home to the Jell-O Gallery Museum run by the LeRoy Historical Society.

The society credits savvy advertising, including colourful recipe books and catchy jingles, with the product’s widespread popularity. As an easy-to-use foodstuff, Jell-O also benefited from the rise of home economics, which preached efficiency, esthetics and order.

While Jell-O was initially marketed as a light dessert, savoury moulded salads took inspiration from aspics before them and found an audience during the Depression, giving homemakers a creative way to stretch ingredients.

The postwar processed-food boom kept savoury congealed meals en vogue until the 1950s and Jell-O, now owned by Kraft Heinz, has since returned to its sweet beginnings.

And now, on to the eating. (Full disclosure: None of us grew up eating much Jell-O, so these dishes don’t carry the fond nostalgia others might experience.)

Tomato Aspic

1 (85-g) pkg lemon or lime Jell-O

250 ml (1 cup) boiled water

250 ml (1 cup) cold water

1 (540-ml) can stewed tomatoes, drained*

Note: Tomatoes can be substituted with 625 ml (21/2 cups) mild, chunky salsa.

Dissolve Jell-O in boiled water, stirring until powder is completely dissolved. Add cold water and stir. Refrigerate.

When jelly is partially set, stir in drained stewed tomatoes. Pour into a mould or bowl greased with cooking spray and chill for at least 2 hours.

— Donald L. Adamson

Tasting Notes

Jen Zoratti: It smells good, like tomato soup.

Ben Sigurdson: I get salsa.

Eva Wasney: I’m getting V8 vegetable juice.

JZ: One, two, three, go. The flavour is actually pretty good. But I think this needs to be on something, like a cracker, then I might be OK with it. A straight forkful to the dome is a bit intense.

BS: It’s not the ideal delivery mechanism.

EW: My problem with both of the savoury ones is that they use sweet lemon Jell-O, so I think there’s a little bit too much sugar for my palate.

BS: There are some big chunks of tomato here; should it be more finely chopped?

EW: The recipe called for canned stewed tomatoes, which I did not strain first. That was a mistake and it ended up way too loose.

Spring Parfait Salad

2 (85-g) pkgs lemon jello

250 ml (1 cup) boiled water

750 ml (3 cups) celery, diced

150 ml (2/3 cup) green bell pepper, diced

75 ml (1/3 cup) carrot, diced

500 ml (2 cups) cucumber, diced

125 ml (1/2 cup) radishes, sliced

250 ml (1 cup) salad dressing or Miracle Whip

125 ml (1/2 cup) crushed pineapple, drained

Juice of one lemon

Dissolve Jell-O in boiled water in a large bowl. Chill in the refrigerator until partially set.

Add celery, green pepper, carrot, cucumber and radishes to a large bowl. Stir in dressing, mixing until vegetables are coated. Stir in pineapple and lemon juice.

Add to Jell-O, stirring to incorporate.

Pour into a greased mould and chill until set.

— Shirley MacFarlane

Tasting Notes

EW: I’m really proud of how this one turned out. It is so satisfying to unmould a Jell-O. This one came out perfect, with a big thwump.

JZ: It’s very pretty; it looks like it’s from the 1950s.

BS: Wow, it’s so crunchy.

EW: This actually tastes quite familiar, almost like a coleslaw meets a relish.

BS: That’s my least favourite condiment. I hate relish and I dislike pineapple.

JZ: I like the flavour in the background, but it’s a textural nightmare for this girl. I have a lot of texture issues with food, so I’m proud of myself for trying this at all.

BS: So do I, but I’m feeling adventurous.

EW: Well good for you guys for getting outside your comfort zones. I have a bit of an issue with calling this a salad, but I do like it.

JZ: But what is a salad, if not a bunch of vegetables in dressing?

Orange Jellied Salad

1 (85-g) pkg orange Jell-O

1 (284-ml) can mandarin oranges, drained and liquid reserved

250 ml (1 cup) boiled water

175 ml (3/4 cup) mandarin orange liquid

1 (85-g) pkg Dream Whip

125 ml (1/2 cup) milk

2.5 ml (1/2 tsp) vanilla extract

Dissolve Jell-O in boiled water. Stir in reserved mandarin orange liquid. Chill in the refrigerator until partially set.

Make Dream Whip according to directions (whip powder with milk and vanilla until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes).

Using a stand or electric mixer, combine Jell-O with prepared Dream Whip. Stir in mandarin orange segments.

Pour mixture into a greased mould and set in the refrigerator overnight.

— Cindy Plett

Tasting Notes

EW: I’m not sure if the oranges are supposed to be suspended throughout, but they all just kind of dropped to the bottom of the mould.

BS: It smells like a creamsicle. Very vanilla too.

JZ: That slaps. I think this needs whipped cream, or like a cold element on top of it for a little bit of juxtaposition.

BS: This is good; I like this.

EW: Oh, it’s really light and fluffy. Very refreshing and not too sweet. And it’s definitely the jiggliest of the bunch.

Broken Glass Torte

Filling

1 (85-g) pkg lemon Jell-O

1 (85-g) pkg lime Jell-O

1 (85-g) pkg strawberry Jell-O

750 ml (3 cups) boiled water

1 (7-g) pkg Knox unflavoured gelatin

60 ml (1/4 cup) cold water

250 ml (1 cup) pineapple juice

500 ml (2 cups) whipping cream

125 ml (1/2 cup) sugar

5 ml (1 tsp) vanilla

Crust

500 ml (2 cups) graham crumbs

125 ml (1/2 cup) melted butter

125 ml (1/2 cup) sugar

Dissolve each package of Jell-O into 250 ml (1 cup) boiled water and pour into three greased 8×8-inch pans. Chill in the refrigerator until completely set and cut into 1/2-inch cubes. (Note: The Jell-O can be made in advance to cut down on waiting time.)

Add Knox gelatin to the cold water to soften. Add pineapple juice and gelatin to a small pot and bring to a slow boil on the stovetop. Set aside or in the refrigerator to cool.

Whip cream until soft peaks form. Slowly add sugar and vanilla. Fold in the cooled pineapple-gelatin mixture. Fold in the Jell-O cubes.

To make the crust, mix graham crumbs with melted butter and sugar. Press two-thirds of the crust into the base of a clear glass dish. Pour in filling and sprinkle with remaining graham crumbs.

Refrigerate for two to three hours.

— Karen Burns

Tasting Notes

EW: Look at that cross-section.

JZ: These Jell-O colours are beautiful. This is totally something I could see making a Christmas tradition.

EW: And you could definitely play around with the flavours. I like this one quite a bit. There’s a bit more textural differences because the Jell-O is solid, the whipped cream is light and the crust is crunchy.

BS: Wow, this one might be my favourite. And it doesn’t come across as super old-fashioned to me.

EW: It’s crazy that it’s the same base ingredient in all of these dishes. People have gotten really creative, it’s like, what can’t we put in Jell-O?

BS: What did you learn while making all these Jell-Os?

EW: Jell-O is very easy to work with, all you have to do is boil water and wait. And the presentation, in the end, is very satisfying.

JZ: It seems like you get a lot of juice without much of a squeeze.

EW: Exactly.

We’re currently looking for camping recipes for an upcoming edition of Homemade. Visit winnipegfreepress.com/homemade to fill out the submission form.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com