Jell-O Love Wheel

Valentine's Day is the most romantic day of the year. All those cherubs and roses! Have you decided what delectable delights you will eat by candlelight tonight? As always, Curly Wurly has some entirely serviceable ideas that will undeniably set a distinctive mood. Heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and lobster tails have been done. Why not take a spin on these Jell-O brand menu wheels? Who knew that choosing which Jell-O salad goes with which meat is even more difficult than selecting the wine!

Feeling like Chicken tonight? This little coterie looks dazzling next to the Peaches a l'Orange! If you prefer your chicken fried, you might be interested in the Orange Glow Salad. That special crunch of pineapples and carrots is the perfect complement to the crispy coating!


Making Pork Chops tonight? Once again, if you're opting for fried, you want a crunchy salad accompaniment. Apple Crunch Salad is your best bet; it packs a triple crunch with its trio of apple, celery, and nuts! Apparently, breaded pork chops require something unusual and smooth. How about Saucy Yogurt Salad? I don't think I've ever seen an aspic salad quite like this one, though I have to say that there's nothing too objectionable in it.


There's no group of food that is more romantic than seafood; oysters, lobster, and shrimp have long been linked to love. I'm confident that fish slabs and this Pimiento Circle, that seems to shine as if lit from within, is the most romantic menu option for Valentine's Day. For something a little zestier, you can try the Pickle Salad (aka Cucumber Dill Slice).


It's never too early in the holiday season to make the ham. Give it a nice tropical glaze and pair it with the Pineapple Lime Temptation. Better yet, serve up the Banana Greens salad. It's so great that Jell-O insists it's 'great with any ham dish'!


Or, there is always the Carrot Cheese Ring, which is also great with any ham dish.


As many cookbooks have revealed, the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach. If that is so, hamburger is surely a one-way ticket. Leave off the buns, omit the fries, and feed him the Ranch Relish Salad or the Tangy Tomato Mold. Just wait until he tells the whole neighborhood what a great cook you are!


Another hamburger salad option is the Red Red Salad. Strawberry flavored gelatin, catsup, and green pepper! Best to serve with some Red Red Wine.


The Longhorn Salad is practically an extension of the steak dinner. Or, better yet, make him feel like a king with the Asparagus Castle! For future reference, food should probably not be named after an edifice that is meant to withstand attack from hostile invaders.


Bell Pepper Salad also goes well with steak dinners!


So does the French Bean Basket! Plus, 'basket' sounds less imposing than 'castle.'

For more Jell-O (and don't we all want more Jell-O?), wiggle on over to Months of Edible Celebrations to take a look at Louise's assortment of Jell-O booklets! Now, some of the desserts in her booklets might actually pass for romance!

How A-peeling!

In the 1960s, you had to expect the unexpected. Everyday items and mundane routines were transformed into unpredictable and unusual moments, with backgrounds of swirling colors and psychedelic music. Bananas were no exception.

These two Chiquita advertisements dating from those heady days are surely not one in the same. The first ad promises a 'successful banana,' and when its skin is peeled back, it is fulfilled. The second ad, however, is a product more from the strange sixties: its peel is pulled back to expose.. Jell-O (strawberry and cherry)?! All the better for making your Jell-O fruit salads!

Classic American Gelatine Recipes

Here's a companion piece for the last Knox Gelatin post. It's a one page pamphlet from 1963, and it contains different pictures of some of the same recipes from the larger 'on-camera' book. I don't know about you, but I never tire of looking at tomato aspic!

1. Three panels - Front cover (patriotic Tomato Aspic), information about Knox Gelatine, and a different look at the perfect Perfection Salad


2. Our "old friend" Tomato Aspic


3. "Three valuable Knox Gelatine Booklets free" ad. Unfortunately, I don't have the book with Thing on the cover.

Knox Gelatin: On-Camera (1963)

Knox On-Camera Recipes: A Completely New Guide To Gel-Cookery is a novel sort of cookbook. Unlike those other books that just show a picture of the finished dish, this one is the printed equivalent of a step-by-step television cooking show. It's the perfect guide for anyone who is passionate about gelatin, yet has trouble mastering the complex art of gel-cookery. You'll definitely want to click to enlarge these pictures. The food graphics are exceptional, the dish descriptions are delightful, and the general design of the book is an excellent example of early 1960s design.

1. Front cover - The only glimpse of the goings-on behind the cameras and a neat effect showing both the hostess from afar and a close-up of her unveiling a gelatin "on-camera".


2. Table of Contents - A beautifully drawn portrait of a stylish lady and her gelatin salad.


3. Why On-Camera Recipes?


4. The Key To Knox Gel-Cookery


5. The five types of gelatine dishes - Which is your favorite?


6. On-Camera Salads - Clockwise from top left, these beauties are Tomato Aspic, Waldorf Salad, and Green Salad Mold.


7. Impress the guests! The muddy browns of the Aspic Canapés and the Jellied Gazpacho certainly have little in common with the groovy shades of Jell-O!


8. The most structurally sound dish in the book is the Tomato Aspic loaf. While this perfectly smooth red slab is the very image of flawlessness, the individual salads beneath it are actually deemed Perfection Salads.


9. Cranberries lent their deep color and inimitable tang to many gelatin dishes. Here, Cranberry Soufflé Salad and beehivelike Cranberry Orange Relish, which resembles a police car's siren.


10. It's no myth that gelatin makes an outstanding fruit salad. While the Fruit Nectar Salad may be a favorite of the gods, the Golden Salad was touched by the hand of Midas himself.


11. Vegetables mixed with abandon - Garden Patch Salad and Green Salad Mold.


12. The Grapefruit Ginger Salad sort of has a smooth, alabastrine quality to it. Not so of the mottled Waldorf Salad!


13. On-Camera Main Dishes - The stars of the page are the piscine mousse and the lobster made of tomato aspic.


14. A speckled Deviled Egg Mold paired with the majestic Chicken Mousse.


15. The Many Faces of Tuna - A disturbingly colored Tuna Mold ring filled with peas and the suspicious Molded Avocado and Tuna loaf.


16. This might be the worst set of recipes in the book. They don't look as bad as they sound. Here, Cottage Cheese and Kidney Bean Salad and the Corned Beef and Slaw Salad.


17. "You Can Drink Knox, Too..." ad


18. Back cover and early 1960s packaging design.

Thank you for reading, and Happy New Year!

1970s Bundt Cakes

Whoever said cake pans are only for plain birthday cakes? I'm not sure anybody said that, but the grim Over 300 Delicious Ways To Use Your Bundt Pans was Nordicware's answer to those hypothetical naysayers. In this 1973 cookbook, the company that brought us many a fancy bundt pan challenged everyone's preconceptions of what a cake had to be, and, in doing so, might have alienated many cakelovers.

1. Back cover - I had to post the back cover because the front cover looked more appetizing and did not have a globe.


2. The butler is in attendance as the girl meets with the Georgian Chocolate Pound Cake (which may or may not be her mother).


3. In the light of the servant's quarters, the butler reveals himself to be Jason Lee of tv's My Name Is Earl! Maybe he wronged this Walnut Bourbon Pound Cake in the past and is now forced to see to its every need.


4. Yes, this is REAL Bean Bread made with liquified Pork n' Beans!


5. Gelatin and Lazy Days Meat Ring - Who knew 'lazy days' meant ground chuck, beer, powdered spaghetti sauce mix, and cheese sauce!


6. The Lively Salad - 'Lively' because there's a live jellyfish trapped in its gelatine walls.


7. Basic Gelatin - Away from everyone's favorite feel-good snack, Jell-O brand Jell-O, gelatin takes on a far more sinister character. It's said that there are fruits inside this gelatin, but I see something more disturbing. Look closely. Do you see a skull in among the peaches? If not, click here for a closer look.


8. Can you imagine the designer setting up this scene.. placing the big-eyed squirrels just close enough to the plate so that you can't really tell the felt woodland creatures from the Individual Ham Loaves? It just seems unnatural.


9. Meet the descendant of Oriental Shrimp Sandwich Roll! This is Tuna Soufflé Salad. As you can see, it is smaller than its predecessor, and since its color is less conspicuous, it can camouflage itself more successfully. One interesting feature of note is its extendable eye, which often gives it an advantage over its prey. I believe this is a picture of its mating ritual.


10. Pumpkin House Cake - scaring little children since 1973


11. This clown cake is the scariest of all, though. Look at that styrofoam head and gaping mouth! Stare deep into those soulless icing eyes!

Amazing Magical Jell-O Desserts

In 1977, General Foods published Amazing Magical Jell-O Desserts, a lovely hardcover volume that includes not only '72 gelatin and pudding recipes,' but also magic tricks by Marvello The Great. Marvello is a slightly diabolical magician with a monocle who is credited with fantastic feats featuring gelatin. Clearly, he is far more likable than Jell-O Man.

1. Front cover - Here is Marvello with hovering gelatin desserts


2. A nice portrait of Marvello The Great


3. The Banana Wobbler - my favorite Jell-O item


4. The adorable Sunny Whip


5. The Strawberry Yogurt Poof - Fred's a lucky guy


6. Smilin' Snacks


7. Here is a fanciful example of the illustrations in this book


8. This last picture is from, 1976's The Jell-O Pudding Sampler. This is the glazed banana pie, a banana wobbler in pie form.