("We have a lot," says Belluscio, "at least 18 different shapes that said Jell-O.") Decorative molds from the '50s and '60s. Stamped aluminum molds that were first produced by the Jell-O company in 1904 and branded with the now-iconic name. Many of those early molds are displayed in the historical society exhibit. Nonetheless, from its first recipe booklet in 1904, Jell-O extolled the mold. He too had a hard time with sales but began distributing recipes, some of which evoked Victorian prototypes - such as traditional puddings and blancmange, according to Belluscio. Neighbor Orator Francis Woodward, who had recently founded the Genesee Pure Food Co., bought them out two years later for $450. They dubbed it Jell-O but weren't very successful in their door-to-door sales. and May Davis Wait of Le Roy, he a carpenter and cough-syrup manufacturer, made their mark with a granulated gelatin that was presweetened and preflavored. But husband-and-wife innovators Pearle B. Even sheets of granulated gelatin were available earlier. Their forebears were traditional jellied dishes made with home-prepared calf's-foot jelly. Jell-O and gelatin molds did not spring from nowhere in 1897. Jell-O left Le Roy in 1964 and is now produced by Kraft Foods. "Most of the people we saw before the exhibit were doing genealogy." The "History of Jell-O" exhibit at the Le Roy Historical Society has drawn "a couple of bus tours a week, which we never saw before," says Lynne Belluscio, the director of the society. Why? The staff has been too busy constructing a nine-foot-long, 15-car train made out of Jell-O, complete with engines, a box car, a cattle car, a coal car and a caboose. Over at Le Roy's D&R Depot, Nancy Nickerson says, "We're cheating": Her restaurant staff is putting cubes of fruited Jell-O on salad plates rather than doing molds. And people are ordering it in place of a salad or potato. Le Roy is where Jell-O was born in 1897, and where savvy restaurants have been serving molded salads and desserts this spring and summer in honor of the centenary.Īt Muggins, a lively Le Roy sports bar, Phil Tooze is offering a lemon and lime Jell-O-based Waldorf Salad in a traditional round mold. The 8,176 citizens of Le Roy, N.Y., probably feel sorry for the Jell-O deficient. Stacks rings of different flavors (each mixed with a little sour cream) atop one another. Or Rainbow Ribbon Mold, a circular dazzler that ![]() ![]() Like Molded Waldorf Salad - chunks of apple and walnut suspended in gelatin. Those who've managed to get through life without encountering a Jell-O mold (you're probably either under 30 or were nurtured in a different culture) have missed out on the fruit- or vegetable-filled molded- gelatin desserts and salads that once were staples on American dinner tables. Strawberry Kiwi, Peach Passion Fruit, Sparkling White Grape - three of 23 flavors whose granules are trapped inside those little cardboard boxes - shimmer exotically alongside the basic Black Cherry, Lime and Orange of childhood. Oh Jell-O mold! Queen of the gelatin firmament! Shapely and quivering even unto your 100th year! You, humble New York State native, have become a domestic icon spreading your jewel tones worldwide, with more than 1,134,239 packages purchased or eaten each day, registering almost a billion dollars in sales.
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