Jell-O: A Biography

by Carolyn Wyman

The author of SPAM: A Biography is back again-This time with the definitive biography of an even bigger edible American icon: JELL-0! Who didn't grow up on JELL-O gelatin? Hospitals dished it out... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156011239
• ISBN13: 9780156011235
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Harvest Books
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.0" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

A must for Jell-O lovers

After 107 years on the market,Jell-O gelatin continues to sell well in many parts of the world. Thirty thousand boxes are sold every nine seconds in the United States according to kraftfoods.com(the company that owns the trademark brand). This book is filled with various recipes involving Jell-O gelatin and pudding mix. In 1939,Jell-O pudding debuted in three flavors:vanilla,chocolate and butterscotch. Today,there are fifteen. The others are lemon,pistachio,french vanilla,banana cream,coconut cream,devil's food,chocolate fudge,white chocolate,cheesecake,chocolate cherry,chocolate mint and cookies and cream(white chocolate with bits of Nabisco Oreo cookies). The 18 gelatin flavors are cherry,strawberry,raspberry,orange,lemon,lime,cranberry,black cherry,berry blue,wild strawberry,mixed fruit,peach,apricot,island pineapple,grape,mango,strawberry banana and strawberry kiwi. Comedian Bill Cosby has endorsed the brand since 1974,starting with only the pudding. In 1987 he began endorsing the gelatin. Today he endorses every Jell-O item including the Smoothie Snacks(fruit and milk medleys) available in 3 flavors:peach mango,strawberry banana and mixed berry. The late Roy Rogers and the late Kate Smith previously endorsed the pudding and previous spokesmen for the gelatin include the late Jack Benny and Andy Griffith. Cosby,the longest-tenured spokesman,has done a multitude of commercials and print ads for the brand. Cosby said in a 1987 commercial for the gelatin,"You can't be a kid without it.". There are about 200 different Jell-O items on the market today. The gelatin inventor's wife came up with the name Jell-O. Today's Jell-O slogan is "because it's magic".

Fantastic!

This book is amusing and informative. It is full of more facts about Jell-O than you can shake a stick at! The history of Jell-O and the marketing of Jell-O are explored in great detail (did you know that 500 million packages of Jell-O are sold each year?).But, best of all, this book is full lots of amazing Jell-O recipes. As soon as I finished this book, I went thrift shopping for Jell-O molds!

Just plain fun!

Filled with TONS of interesting (and hilarious) info about Jell-O. A real riot!

Blends a culinary history with a recipe book

Jell-O blends a culinary history with a recipe book, following the story of jello's evolution as a famous desert and offering recipes for both main dishes and desserts. It lacks an index, so you'll have to read the book if you want the recipe for Spider cakes and other classics. Humor also blends in as chapters discuss the promotion of jell-o.