Breaking the mold: New cookbook offers '101 Things to Do With Gelatin'

Gibbs Smith Publishing, headquartered in Utah, has found success with its series on ""101 Things to Do With a Cake Mix,"" ""101 Things to Do With Ramen Noodles,"" ""101 Things to Do With Canned Soup,"" and so on. Perhaps it was just a matter of time before another kitchen staple, gelatin, would merit its own ""101"" cookbook.

"Gelatin is kind of retro, it fits in with that era of 1950s desserts, so it seemed like a logical step for our books, which have a retro look to them," said co-author Melissa Barlow, a Gibbs Smith editor who also wrote, "101 Things to Do With a Salad."

Besides, this is Utah, the state with the highest per capita Jell-O consumption. For more than a hundred years, savvy home cooks have regarded a box of fruit-flavored gelatin as an inexpensive dessert, or a way to camouflage salad ingredients from unsuspecting kids.

Barlow teamed up with another Gibbs Smith editor, Jennifer Adams Grillone.

"We decided to make it all about sweet treats and desserts, and we decided we had to really like all of the recipes," Grillone said.

So they nixed aspic dishes, where gelatin and broth or tomato juice were congealed with savory ingredients, such as shrimp, chicken or olives. It also eliminated some of the vintage recipes of Jell-O's early days, such as Lemon Whip with Prunes. And Barlow and Grillone ended up ruling out some of their own experiments.

"A couple of them were gross," Grillone said. "I did lemon Jell-O with apples, celery and sour cream, and it looked awful. I threw it down the sink."

But that still left a lot of possibilities.

"People say, 'How could there be 101 things?'" Barlow said. "But they are impressed when you tell them that you can use it in cookies, cakes, cheesecakes, pies and salads."

The book contains some familiar favorites that tend to make the rounds of potlucks and family reunions, such as Pineapple-Lime Salad (lime gelatin, cottage cheese, crushed pineapple, whipped topping), the Strawberry Pretzel Dessert and Dr Pepper salad.

And there are several versions of "poke" cakes, where the baked cake is poked with a fork and unset gelatin is poured into the holes, then chilled until set.

The authors also used gelatin in frostings, beverages, ice creams and sorbets. For Apple Chips, apple slices are dipped in lemon juice dry gelatin and dehydrated.

"We made up quite a few of the recipes and, remarkably, most of them turned out to be pretty good," Barlow said.

Both of them used friends and family as taste-testers. Barlow said she took many of her dishes to Sunday dinners with extended family members. Grillone had her in-laws over and would ask them to rate her recipes.

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