“If You’re from the Midwest, You Just Know … If You Don’t, You Don’t” by Nora B. Peevy

I grew up in the Midwest, Wisconsin to be precise and everyone, I mean EVERYONE grows up with at least one relative serving gelatin salads. Now I got lucky and didn’t have to sample any of the savory kinds out there, but it’s summer and I must admit I’m having a hankering for Aunt Betty’s and Aunt Gerda’s weird concoctions like orange fluff, which has orange Jello and cottage cheese in it or Lickdob, a very special midwestern treat made of mayonnaise, sugar, and milk that MUST be mixed in a clean recycled jelly jar, preferably a grape one. It’s used as a topping on any flavor of Jello served at any summer family get-together.

Today, I decided to scour the web for the weirdest, grossest dishes I never had the pleasure of eating during my childhood. And yes, my parents would have made me eat them because my parents were older and they ate what they were offered at someone’s house, which has been a unique “experience” sometimes.  Here’s a little nibble on WHY gelatin dishes might have been so popular in the 50s from Collectors Weekly:

Clark: I haven’t really heard a lot of food historians talk about this, but I’ve found that food mixed into Jell-O stays fresher much longer than if you have it by itself.

Collectors Weekly: Whoa, how long are you talking about, like weeks?

Clark: Like days. For example, Perfection Salad is basically coleslaw inside of lemon or lime Jell-O, so it’s got cabbage and carrots and all kinds of stuff. But the cabbage will stay fresh for over a week. If you take a bite of it, it’s still crunchy. My husband, Tom, tries all this. He’s a chemist, so he’ll keep tasting it long, long after I’m done with it. But if you make regular coleslaw and put dressing on it, the cabbage becomes soggy after three days. And after five days, you’re not going to eat it.

We’ve done a lot of different Jell-O stuff and noticed that freshness is basically extended when you encase things in Jell-O. We’ve done cakes covered with gelatin, and the cake would still be moist after a week and a half. We made sandwiches with gelatin, open-faced sandwiches with flavored gelatin poured over the top, which was supposed to be like mayo. I thought it was going to be disastrous. Tom wolfed them down. He’s like, “These are really good and the bread isn’t soggy.” I’m like, “Are you kidding me?” Two days later, they were still edible.

I don’t know if being frugal and using up leftovers was part of the Jell-O trend, putting them in gelatin and then trying to force them down that way. But that’s my theory.

To read the entire article *BLORK*

Now on to some of my favorite WTFs – I mean dishes.

1.  Meals in a Mold: The Mid-Century’s Love Affair with Gelatin  – Flashbak This article features what’s lovingly called “Monterey Soufflé Salad,” a tuna salad in lemon flavored gelatin.
2. You could put an ENTIRE salad in clear or yellow gelatin, but why I don’t know. The trend in the 1950s, of savory Jell-O dishes… : r/TheWayWeWere (reddit.com)
3. This spaghetti and hot dog dish uses unflavored gelatin: 1950s Retro Spaghettios & Franks Jello Mold Cake – Cookbook Community
4. If you love potato salad, maybe you might like this one made in lemon Jello? Check out these savory jello salad recipes from the 50s – Click Americana
5. Try this Jello cabbage relish recipe in lemon Jello. Yum! *BLORK* Check out these savory jello salad recipes from the 50s – Click Americana

I think I’ll stop myself here, but you get the point. Go surf the interdweeb and you will find the weirdest Jello recipes to delight your savory tastebuds. Happy munching!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nora B. Peevy is a cat trapped in a human’s body. Please send help or tuna. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Degree with a Concentration in Creative Writing from Cardinal Stritch University and is an Olympic champion sleeper, toiling away for JournalStone/Trepidatio Publishing as a submissions reader and a reviewer for Hellnotes. She is also reading screenplays for the Lovecraft Film Festival again this year. Her first novelette, For the Sake of Brigid was released in May of 2024 and her first novel, Flesh Eating Turtles! will be coming out later this year. Her quirky stories are published in Eighth Tower Press, Weird Fiction Quarterly, Obsidian Butterfly, and other presses. You can find her on Facebook (as Onyx Brightwing), her blog, She Writes Fast | A blog for writers and readers (wordpress.com), and on Slasher as @Sekhautet. She naps in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.