Via Junkyard Clubhouse, I discovered this site filled with image captures from a 1979 church-group cookbook, and after having looked through the (really disgusting) recipes, I have a question.
A lot of the recipes seem to combine Jell-O and pineapple. But I thought pineapple was, like, the thing you couldn’t combine with Jell-O? Because of some acid or chemical or something in the pineapple that prevents gelatin from setting?
Am I wrong about this? Is this just erroneous conventional folk wisdom? Please inform me, people! This is rocking my world!
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It’s true, in that recipe’s case, you wind up with syrup instead of Jell-O. I guess the point of the recipe is to not allow the Jell-O to turn into gelatin.
If Uncle Cecil says so, it is.
In this case there probably won’t be a problem. Pineapple contains the enzyme bromelain, which breaks down the protein that makes up gelatin. But, if the pineapple is heat-treated, like it is during canning, the bromelain breaks down so that doesn’t happen. I don’t know how long that takes, but the three minutes the recipe calls for will probably do the trick if the temperature’s high enough.
Does it really matter? In the end, fruit plus Jell-O equals an abomination, regardless of the type.
What Atheris says. If the pineapple has been heat treated you can do it. The pineapple, alas, then almost entirely tastes like ass. Of course, when you put it in Jell-O it is doomed to that already.
When will disgusting church social gelatin dishes come back into foodie vogue? Think about it. Just replace half the ingredients with their high-end counterparts and you’ve got the sweet taste of irony for $35 a plate.
I believe this is one of those really nasty fruit salad recipes where instead of fruit suspended in jello, which is bad enough, you actually end up with a semi-coagulated mass of white goo whcih has slightly recognisable fruit shapes piled up in it.
Man, the Foursquare potluck flashbacks. The horror. There were always at least two of those and three mystery casseroles.
I’m slightly more concerned about the presence of cheese there than I am about pineapple gelatin.
What Atheris said. Enzyme disabled by canning process. Fruity Jell-o is go!
Yeah, what Atheris said. It’s a damn shame, too, because bromelain is the best meat tenderizer ever. Marinate a steak in fresh pineapple juice, it practically melts in your mouth, but fresh pineapple juice is a pain to get or make.
You can totally put pineapple in jello. In fact, pineapple chunks and shredded carrot in lemon Jello is a traditional Christmas “salad”, served right alongside the tomato aspic and the cranberries, in some places.
Don’t you then have a steak that tastes like pineapple?
Yep. Fresh pineapple = Jello death. Cooked = ooooooookay.
Both kiwi and pineapple contain an enzyme that digests the proteins that make up gelatin, unfortunately for my jello science experiment.
If they’re fresh, anyway; with canned, it doesn’t matter.
I don’t know about the science involved, but Miriam Cluff’s salad sounds like gross.
I live in the jell-o capital of the world…or at least where it was invented. You can use pineapple as long as it is canned. I’ve done it many times and it always comes out perfectly gelled.
People, people, people!! You’re missing the point here. This “dish” has pineapple, jello, cool whip, & CHEESE??!!! OMGWTF?! Srsly. I just threw up a little in my mouth, and I actually LIKE some pretty weird concoctions (honey mustard & onion pretzels? I know, right). I’m kinda thinking that it would look like thing that slimes its way across the table in “Better Off Dead.”
Oh, I dunno, a nice strong cheddar might add a little somethin’-somethin’…
Like that taste on the back end that makes everyone go, “hmmm. Erm, that’s interesting. What is it?” And the Church Lady yells, “It’s CHEESE, motherfuckers!”
Somethin’-somethin’ like that, perhaps?
Thank you Joanna, I thought I was the only one to see the horror.
I mean… really… CHEESE? It takes a lot to squick me, but this recepy managed.
Jello. Sugar. Pineapple. Whipped cream… alright something’s missing… CHEESE!
Americans and their wacky, wacky food.
http://www.cracked.com/article_14979_6-most-terrifying-foods-in-world.html
Yeah, those AMERICANS, they SO crazy . . .
Anywho, the scary part is it never specifies what kind of cheese.
Jello + (canned)Pineapple = Okay, I guess.
Adding cheese? That doesn’t sound like a win there….
Cheese and Jell-O do not sound tempting, but at least it’s cheese and not sliced hot dogs. *shudder* I swear, some old people are just evil.
I’m American and I find this recipe offensive to the taste buds, I mean seriously what did they ever do to the person that thought that was an edible substance?
I would only inflict such a thing on people I don’t like (but I’m not a nice person, sometimes) the trick would be to use the whipped cream to disguise what it actually was. BTW jello +pineapple is NOT “OK” ,ever, period. I’ve had it and it is gross, I had to pick the pineapple out of it because the flavor gets into it and the texture is god awful as well (I relate it to onions which I don’t like either.)
*looks at the link to scary foods* but but… Lutfisk is actually not bad…
No seriously, the scary thing about american foods is that they are all good things on their own, but then are put together in frightening combinations.
Though i have been told the same goes for swedish pizzas so…
Man, I could really go some Mystery Casserole right now…
But Cheese + Jello? What kind of abominable Wisconsin mad-dog came up with that hell brew of a concoction?
LurkerWithout, you don’t have family from the northern midwest, do you. Who came up with that? Lutheran Church Ladies!
Oh, the culinary horrors perpetrated in that part of the world…largely by my own family…
GAH! COOL-WHIP FLASHBACK!! AAAH!!
The only things that would make this concoction worse is coconut – a staple in many a jello/fruit/cool whip combo. Maybe that’s what the cheese is supposed to evoke here…that strange, chewy texture with the weird aftertaste that is usually due to the coconut (even though I normally LOVE coconut, like damn. Whoo. Damn!).