Jell-o is an affordable dessert that has been enjoyed in Canada and the United States since its creation in the early 1900s. Throughout the years many people have tried experimenting with Jell-o to see what tasty creations they could come up with. This was especially true during the 1940s when many people were trying to make the most out of what was available during World War II.

The post war years of the 1950s also saw many new Jell-o recipes as the baby boom was underway and new mothers were doing their best to meet the needs of their family. There were some people who pushed the boundaries of what they could mix with the fruit flavored gelatin, and not everything is equally as appetizing. While we can look back and giggle at all of the various “salad” Jell-o recipes that people tried to make work, I would like to recognize all of the hard-working women and men who made do with what they had available during times of food shortages and rationing.

In order to search for these advertisements and submitted dishes, I wrote the following query for our open collections search: (“Jello” OR “Jell-O” OR “Jell-0”) AND NOT (“Jello Biafra” OR “Jello Wrestling”). To explain this query as simply as possible, it looks for any of the words in the left parentheses and returns them as a result, but if and only if the result does not have anything in quotations from the right parentheses. “Jell-0” is spelled with a zero incase our transcription software made an error and interpreted the letter ‘O’ as a zero. This resulted in 1269 results across open collections, with many of the results being casual references to Jell-o, or grocery store advertising a sale for the product.

The Gala Orange Mould is just Jell-o and canned peaches, this seems quick, easy to make, and tasty.

While not technically a Jell-o recipe, the Hawaiian Delight does sound very tasty, but also very time consuming and difficult to make. This desert sounds like it takes an entire afternoon to make.

Like the Gala Orange Mould, the Strawberry Banana Mould is just Jell-o and fruit which is a tasty combo. I am highly skeptical that the Kitchen Garden Salad was something that most people tried more than once as Lime Jell-o, vinegar, and radishes with green onions does not sound like a winning combination. The texture alone of crunchy radishes and onion contrasting with the smoothness of Jell-o makes it unappealing.

Similarly, the Spring Garden Salad also tries to mix Lime Jell-o, vinegar, and green onions together.

Pear and Cherry Mould is another take on the Jell-o + fruit combo. This is the same for the Lime Gaiety as more water is being added to thin the Jell-o.

The Jell-o Jewel Salad is another Jell-o + Fruit combo, but it is also making use of Lemon Juice and Pineapple juice for extra flavoring. At first Jell-o Banana Foam does not seem appealing, I will reserve judgment as it seems that it has potential to be good and I would need to try it to find out.

The Self-Layering Fruit Mould is a creative desert. While the nut pieces might have the same texture issue as the radishes of the Garden Salads; the strawberry, orange, and banana flavors of the rest of the recipe sound like a nice fruit combination.

The Emerald Macedoine Salad is another riff on the Kitchen Garden Salad. But instead of radishes and green onions, it has olives and celery that might make the texture more consistent. The recipe also says that you can add mayonnaise to top it off, which really makes me struggle to think of how this might taste.

One more Jell-o + fruit combo, coming right up! This one also adds diced marshmallows which seems like it would be a great alternative to whipped cream.

Even though it has vinegar, I think the Spiced Jellied Peaches might be very good. The vinegar is only ¼ cup and it gets boiled with peach juice, sugar, and spices and so it most likely doesn’t taste like vinegar at the end.  The Pineapple Vanilla treat mixes both regular Jell-o and Jell-o pudding, I would definitely try it although I’m unsure how well they actually mix.

Lime Jell-o and pineapple is another Jell-o + fruit combo, but for some reason someone came along and decided that they needed to add cucumber to it. Perhaps try coconut instead of the cucumber?

Lime Jell-o Avocado Moulded Salad presented without comment.

Lime Jell-o strikes again! this time with cottage cheese, whipped cream, pineapple juice, and marshmallows. Why is it always lime flavored Jell-o?

Jell-o Cubes with custard and Jell-o Trifle are both nice desserts that might take your mind off of lime Jell-o and vegetables with various dairy products.

Quick-and-Easy Chocolate Frosting sounds delicious! As for the Sunny Orange Supper Plate, I’ll give it credit for using Orange Jell-o instead of lime and adding cold sliced meat for originality. This recipe really does seem like someone’s attempt at a struggle meal during WWII that turned out better than they expected.

I’ve never had a bad bread pudding, and this Chocolate Bread Pudding looks like a quick and easy treat that might be a new favorite of mine. Prune Snow is really creative even though it does seem like a bit of extra work compared to most Jell-o recipes.

If you want an alternative to Chocolate Bread Pudding, try Chocolate Rice Pudding! Fruits and Jell-o Ring is nothing special, but sticks to the tried and true Jell-o + fruit combo.

Wafers could offer a nice crispiness without the crunchiness to the Tropical Orange Cream desert that earlier recipes tried to capture with nuts or vegetables. As for the Jellied Waldorf Salad, well this looks like the best Jell-o Salad yet. At least all the flavors sounds like they go together.

Jell-o Pudding Butterflies are a nice novelty. It’s not anything special, but cupcake filled with pudding couldn’t be bad. I really was on board with the Jell-o Cheese-Apple Salad as a potentially good tasting Jell-o salad right up until the instructions to serve it on lettuce. The leafy greens make this meal a tough sell.

Butterscotch and apples are a nice combination. I would be tempted to use Caramel Jell-o instead for candied apples around Halloween. Jell-o Fruit Parfait is yet another Jell-o + fruit combo.

Tropical Fruit Medley isn’t interesting as a Jell-o + Fruit combo. But I did want to point out that two of the three fruits are Grapes and Cherries, which certainly aren’t tropical.

If you were wondering where everyone got their Jell-o moulds from, Jell-o had sales of them.

One of the interesting things that I came across while searching for the Jell-o recipes for this blog is Alice in Wonderland™ (trademark of Walt Disney Company) and Jell-o during the time when the classic was in theatres.

The Ubyssey has also reminded us that there is an all-time favorite Jell-o recipe among university students of both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Thank you for reading!