Gelatin Desserts

This popular type of dessert is loved for its numerous flavors and bright colors. It can be layered or molded into any shape, and it wobbles. It is a fun dessert for all ages. However, this pretty-looking dessert has a not-so-pretty origin.

Gelatin may be used to make savory dishes as well as sweet ones, which is how the dessert we know today came to be. The creation of gelatin dates back to the 1400s, which is the exciting part. To release the collagen in animal skin and bones, it first involved an excruciatingly lengthy procedure of boiling the materials for hours at a time. The oldest recorded recipes for those delicious, gelatin-based foods called for boiling collagen-rich pig feet and ears. Gelatin was utilized more for preserving, glazing, and binding during the period because it would have given sweet meals a meaty flavor. Gelatin without flavor started to be produced in bundled, dried leaves during the Industrial Revolution.

In 1845, a man named Peter Cooper decided to switch from glue production to producing gelatin dessert mixes. His recipe included sugar, spices, eggs, and processed lemons mixed in with powdered gelatin. However, it was not a popular product at all. Then in 1887, a husband and wife—Pearle. B and May Wait—decided to flavor gelatin powder. They added artificial fruit flavors and lots of sugar, and then gave this powdered dessert mix a name that is now known very well today: Jell-O. Unfortunately, the product was not very successful at first, and it was not until a company, owned by a man named Frank Woodward, took over the trademark and recipe that it became a hit. Today, both homemade and premade gelatin dessert mixes are popular treats.

Country: United Kingdom