Archival Anecdotes: From gelatin to Jell-O

Jell-O had me stumped as a child. It was as refreshing as liquid and solid enough to suspend banana slices. Eventually I asked my grandma, because if anyone knew anything about the Jell-O's state of matter it would be her. She said, "It's more like plasma or bone marrow."

At that point, I tried to swear off the jiggly sweet stuff, but such efforts only lasted until the next family gathering.

As it turns out, Grandma wasn't wrong.

Meat-eaters since the dawn of fire have noticed the gelatinous elements found in the bonier cuts. Aside from putting the 'jelly' on toast, options seemed limited. The nutritional value of gelatin was well-documented in the early 1800s when the French used it as a protein during the English blockade of the Napoleonic Wars.

Just a few decades later American industrialist and inventor Peter Cooper secured a patent for a gelatin dessert powder called Portable Gelatin, requiring only the addition of hot water. However, he had no interest in gelatin's potential as a dessert. Instead, he considered the product's potential for glue, and it might have been just as well, for the food manufacturers he hired to experiment with gelatin were unable to make a palatable or appealing product. After 50 years, Cooper sold the patent to Pearl Wait, a cough syrup maker, in 1895.

The purchase of the patent was just what. Wait was waiting for. He had decided to give up the cough-syrup business, and gelatin promised to help him branch out to the food industry. He and his wife, May, experimented with adding fruit syrups (strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon) to gelatin. The resulting powder was 88% sugar renamed "Jell-O."

As sweet and tasty as their product was, Wait just couldn't sell it. Ultimately he sold the formula to his neighbor, Orator Woodward. In 1902, Woodward launched an advertising campaign that claimed Jell-O to be "America's most favorite dessert." The campaign included pictures, billboards, and ads with Jell-O recipes. Over 15 million Jell-O recipe booklets were printed and sent to American homes, many of which were now equipped with an icebox.

Over the next several decades, Jell-O was a popular side dish at holiday tables, often with fruit and vegetables suspended within. There was even a line-up of savory Jell-O flavors in the early '60s (think celery or seasoned tomato.) However, the product's popularity declined.

In 1974, Jell-O gained a second chance, as advertisers once again targeted children as potential consumers. Thus came the jigglers and eventually the snack cups that so many enjoyed as a kid.