How Jell-O Conquered America
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How Jell-O Conquered America
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How did Jell-O go from an elaborate luxury to one of America’s most famous convenience foods—and eventually to tuna suspended in lime gelatin?
In this episode of America’s Eats, we trace the surprising history of Jell-O from Peter Cooper’s nineteenth-century gelatin experiments and Pearle Wait’s 1897 product through mass advertising, recipe booklets, home economics, electric refrigeration, savory Jell-O salads, Ring-Around-the-Tuna, and Bill Cosby’s long association with the brand.
Along the way, Jell-O reveals something larger about American food history: how our ideas about convenience, modernity, good cooking, and sophisticated taste can change completely from one generation to the next.
America’s Eats tells the surprising history of America through the food Americans eat. Follow the show for new episodes every Tuesday.