Jell-O is the most popular use of gelatin as a dessert. It is a fruit flavored powder to which hot water is added. When allowed to cool, Jell-O turns from a liquid to a wobbly jelly-like substance that the world loves to consume.
Americans especially love Jell-O. We love it when Bill Cosby sells it on television, it is a staple of many Thanksgiving dinners, and Utah eats so much of it, they made it their official state snack food. But, what is Jell-O and how did it get so popular?
It all started with Peter Cooper in 1845. He patented a product set with gelatin. However, his “jell” never did go over with the public. In 1897, Pearle Wait, was mixing up a cough remedy/laxative. When experimenting with gelatin, he came up with a fruit flavored dessert for his wife, which he named Jell-O. Not having the capital to market his new discover, he sold his formula in 1899 for $450 to Orator Frank Woodward. By 1902, Woodward?s company, Genesee Pure Foods, had successfully promoted Jell-O as sales reached $250,000. In 1925, Jell-O was sold to the Postum Cereal Company, Inc., which would eventually merge to form the General Foods Corporation. Kraft/General Foods in Dover, Delaware packages Jell-O today.
Ready for some Jell-O trivia?
- There is a Jell-O museum located in the hometown of its birth, LeRoy, NY.
- Lemon, strawberry, orange, and raspberry were the first four flavors of Jell-O.
- In 1909, Jell-O earned the Genesee Pure Food Company over one million dollars, a number which doubled within four years.
- At any given time, Jell-O can be found in 64% of all American homes.
- 312 million packages of Jell-O are sold each year.
- irector Cecil B. DeMille used Jell-O as water to keep the Red Sea parted in his 1923 epic “The Ten Commandments.”
- The horses that changed colors in “The Wizard of Oz” were actually sponged down with Jell-O to create that effect.