The bizarre 20th-century side dish has now fallen from use. One expert reveals the surprising reason why it never really caught on.
Dr. Rachel Herz, psychologist, reveals why Jell-O salads fell from grace
Of all the various food crazes to have swept the nation, few have been as widely-mocked as the infamous ‘Jell-O salads’ that became popular from the 1950s onward.
The simple-to-use, colorful desert powders had an instant appeal but it took a bit longer for the now common jello molds to be used for other, more savory dishes. The brand ‘Jell-O’ was at the forefront of this questionable practice, boasting that its “six delicious flavors” were the perfect vessel for a variety of fruits, vegetables, cheeses and other food stuffs.
Common ingredients in the Jell-O salad included carrot shavings, tinned tuna and cottage cheese. For children who were hoping to get a bowl of dessert, the savory version was a big let-down.
But that may not be the only reason why the Jell-O salad has been consigned to the historic cooking books. Dr. Rachel Herz, a specialist on the psychology of smell, is an expert in food psychology. She has authored books ‘That’s Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion’ and ‘Why You Eat What You Eat’ and she has some theories on the psychological issue with the Jell-O salad.
“One of the biggest issues with deciding what we want to eat is visual,” she told HuffPost. “And it might be that in some way we associate jello, being wobbly and jiggly, with things that could be contaminated, like food that’s slippery because it’s gone bad.”
“We know if we eat something and it’s consistent in texture then it’s probably OK,” Herz explained. “But inconsistent qualities are signals that it could be contaminated. If you bit into something soft and found something unexpectedly hard in it, you might think something was wrong.”
That might explain why there is something unsettling about the Jell-O salad. The combination of a wobbly, unusual foodstuff with unknown ingredients might be triggering an alarm in your brain, preventing you from enjoying the food.
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