(This post is Part II to this one.)
What the heck is Jell-O, anyway?
Come along, dear reader, as we take a moment to investigate the roots of the magical treat that has been enjoyed by so many millions since its modern-era invention in 1897 by Pearle B. Wait in LeRoy, New York . . . Well, that's not really true. Gelatin had been around for at least a few hundred years. What the Jell-O guy did was invent the syrupy sweet flavoring to mask the taste of . . . YUK. Read on.
The Victorian era: Still boiling pig feetI had thought that statements like "Jell-O is made from horse feet!" were merely schoolyard urban legends, but it turns out that gelatin is "a
protein produced by partial
hydrolysis of
collagen extracted from the bones, connective tissues, organs, and some intestines of animals such as the domesticated
cattle, and
horses." Yup, the rumors are true. Prior to 1897, if you had a craving for some flavorless (unless you count "sinew" as a "flavor") goo, you had to boil animal nasties for many hours. This is why gelatin was a food
enjoyed (if that is the word?) primarily by upper class people who had servants to perform this nasty process (involving scraping hair and skin off of these boiled bits) of collecting said goo. (Although I'm guessing our dear friend and Pilsbury Bake-Off winner, Mary O., is going to read this and tell me that she's made the stuff herself, probably while she was making water from scratch.)
Sugar to the rescue!Further proving my blanket statement that "if you add enough sugar (or coat it with chocolate), you can make
anything taste good!" And that is what the hero of our story, Pearle B. Wait, did in 1897: he came up with the great idea of masking the nasty natural flavor of gelatin with syrupy sweet flavors and putting the whole mess in a little paper box from which a modern housewife could enjoy an instant gelatinous treat.
Birthplace of Jell-O
Which brings us to LeRoy, NY and the
Jell-O Museum, which we visited over Memorial Day Weekend.
LeRoy, NY (a town of 5,000 souls not far outside of
Rochester, yet, like Binghamton, an exercise in time travel back to 1952) was the proud home of the Jell-O factory. That is, of course, until it was shut down in 1964. As can be found in many Upstate NY rust-belt cities, a hulking mass of a manufacturing lingers on as a sort of tombstone to industries-past.
Jell-O Tourism?
The fact that the
corporate parent is long gone does not prevent the ballsy little LeRoy Historical Society from
milking Jell-O for all it is worth ("
Open Every Day!") and slapping together a small, but interesting, collection of Jell-O history and memorabilia for freak-show tourists like me. The scary thing is that I've known about the Jell-O Museum since long before I moved to upstate NY. It must be on the
same circuit with the
Mustard Museum in
Mount Horeb, Wisconsin (yup, been there, too!) The best thing about the museum is that it is
home grown (check out the sweet "display" of Jell-O molds) and authentic, lacking the corporate polish of places like
Hershey, Pennsylvania or even the
Tabasco factory in the
Middle of Nowhere, Louisiana.
"Jell-O" and "Mayonnaise": two ingredients that do not belong in the same recipe. Ever.
I could
go on for miles about all the nasty Jell-O recipes that involve things like Lime or Lemon Jell-O plus [insert non sequitur ingredient here: canned imitation krab meat (in juice);
radish; horseradish; cabbage; or the ever-popular mayonnaise]. Instead, I will thank the generation immediately preceding mine, which had the good sense to give the cold shoulder to emetic flavors like "Seasoned Tomato" and "Italian Salad" (what the heck does "Italian Salad" taste like?) Check out this list of
discontinued flavors:
pickle Jell-O, ladies?
Jell-O + Mormons: A Love Story
The Jell-O saga would not be complete without a little romance, and we can thank the Mormons for providing it here. It seems that
Mormons harbor an inexplicable fondness for the gooey delight, consuming an average of 21 boxes per family, annually. Not only is it the Official Snack of the State of Utah, in fact- I could not make this up- the area of the United States most densely populated by Mormons is sometimes called . . . the "
Jell-O Belt." You heard it here first!
As if on cue, our favorite country auction spits out this tremendous line of Owego Tuxedoes for hunting season '08. It's as if the fluorescent pieces were thrown in just to make certain that my eyeballs did not miss this entire rack of fabulosity.
Lucille Ball was born in Jamestown, NY, which is apparently the best thing that happened in Jamestown since 1911. This town is doooooown on its luck, but it has latched on to hometown girl Lucy and started its own Lucy & Desi museum, no- let's call it a cultural center. No, this is not only a closet-sized room full of her old dresses and bad wigs. This is a serious mecca for people trapped in 1952 (which is not an insignificant percentage of the local population). Check out the online store- it has more items than the USC gift shop! You can even pick up some Vitameatavegamin or an I Love Lucy blender salt & pepper set? Seriously, take some time browsing in that online gift shop- its holdings are tremendous, I'm telling you.
OK, I admit that I've been holding back on blogging about this photo because - prior hilarious posts aside- I am starting to feel guilty about making fun of hunters, because it seems that some of my (new) best friends come from strong hunter stock (who knew?)
I have written before about what we call the Owego Tuxedo, which consists of 2 or more pieces of camouflage attire, worn together (and named after the county seat of Tioga County, Owego). If any piece also sports fluorescent orange, that is a bonus, sort of the equivalent of tails. We often see Owego Tuxedo finery at the auction we regularly hit up for bargains (but not on crossbows- those fetch top dollar in that crowd.)
