Executive Lifestyle
Written by Ashley Lutz
2012-05-24T17:26:00Z
Fruit Jell-O is a staple at family picnics and hospitals everywhere.
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But 50 years ago,Jell-O aspired to take over your entire dinner table.
Sharon Becker is a college professor from Baltimore who is obsessed with all things vintage. She uploaded pages from oldJell-O cookbooks to Flickr and was kind enough to share the images with us.
FromJell-O and shrimp to an entire salad set in the substance to the wonders of mayonnaise, here are some of the grosser recipes we found.
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This salad calls for pineapple, lime or lemon-flavored Jell-O, vinegar, onion, pepper and one to two cups of your favorite veggies.
Source: Charm and Poise on Flickr
The red roll seen below contains tomato and vinegar, while the green one is mint and pineapple. They're advertised as the perfect complement to a fine steak dinner.
Source: Charm and Poise on Flickr
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This delicacy is called "Ring Around the Tuna." It contains chunks of tuna, pimientos, and cucumbers all molded into lime Jell-O.
Source: Charm and Poise on Flickr
Here Jell-O is used as a creative serving dish for crab salad. Your guests can even take part of the bowl!
Source: Charm and Poise on Flickr
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Here's a beautiful "Tomato Aspic" recipe that ran in McCall's magazine. It calls for lemon Jell-O, tomato juice, hot sauce and vinegar.
Source: Charm and Poise on Flickr
You can show off your artistic skills with this peach Jell-O upside-down cake from the "Joys of Jell-O" cookbook.
Source: Charm and Poise on Flickr
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This recipe card says you can "fish for compliments" with this salad. It calls for cutting vegetables like cucumbers and carrots into fish shapes and molding into lime Jell-O. The finishing touch? Layers of Hellman's mayonnaise.
Source: Charm and Poise on Flickr
This coffee Jell-O is supposed to impress guests at a fine dinner party.
Source: Charm and Poise on Flickr
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This is a "perfection salad," which calls for lemon Jell-O, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, onions and vinegar. The veggies are artfully set as you serve to guests.
Source: Charm and Poise on Flickr
Here's the Crested Tomato Salad, which calls for lemon or orange Jell-O, tomatoes and cucumbers. Set in this artful mold to impress your lunch party guests.
Source: Charm and Poise on Flickr
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Jell-O made a big push toward salads in the 1960's. This salad in an advertisem*nt featured lime jello and ham coldcuts. It also boasts that Jell-O brings out the best in everything from olives to fish to chicken.
Source: Charm and Poise on Flickr
Here's a Bavarian Pie. Instead of using real strawberries and cream, you can mold strawberry Jell-O and CoolWhip into a beautiful form.
Source: Charm and Poise on Flickr
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Here's a seasonal souffle salad. You start with a lime Jell-O base and then add walnuts, grapes and mayonnaise. Garnish with more mayo on top.
Source: Charm and Poise on Flickr
Jell-O saw it fit to lead off an entire section of a 1960's cookbook with these dishes. The top one, "sea dream," involves setting your shrimp co*cktail in lime Jell-O. The other is a vegetable trio with a colorful array of carrots, cucumbers and spinach.
Source: Charm and Poise on Flickr
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Want to serve something classier?
These are the 12 most expensive foods on the planet >
Creative Director
Ashley Lutz was Business Insider's creative director. Ashley joined BI as a retail reporter in 2012. Her work led to Abercrombie adding plus sizes and Lululemon changing its policy of banning customers who tried to resell clothing online. She was previously a retail reporter at Bloomberg News. Ashley has a Bachelor's of Science degree from Ohio University. Follow her on Twitter @AshleyLutz.
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