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| So, what makes this "Pacific" exactly? The green colour? |
As I'm following the directions for the first step of the recipe (add boiling water to lime gelatin; add pineapple juice to the gelatin/ water mix), I happened to glance at the Jell-O packaging. It says "Do not add fresh pineapple or kiwi fruit. Jelly will not set." (Emphasis theirs.) The cookbook's recipe calls for me to add pineapple juice to the gelatin while in the liquid form, though. So, it's a battle of wills, is it? On one side we have the venerable Kraft food corporation: they should know the chemistry of their own product, right? On the other side is the composite kitchen goddess Betty Crocker, with her nimbus of culinary omnipotence.
Of course Betty thouroughly trounced Kraft and the gelatin set perfectly. Maybe the pineapple juice won't interfere with setting, but fresh pineapple actually will? Has anyone tried this?
Now, I know you're all dying to know what this tastes like so I won't leave you hanging any longer... It tastes like super-sweet, fruity mayonnaise that has strange, unrecognizable lumps throughout (cottage cheese and pineapple). It's not appealing to many (or any?) of the senses, really. Goodness knows how this dish or others like it were ever categorized as "salads". How much mayonnaise and Jello can a person eat and still feel like they're eating a salad?. Ugh.
After all is said and done, I still don't have a clue what the "Pacific" aspect of this aspic is. I decided that they were making a stretch for Hawaiian because of the crushed pineapple and so I stuck one of those tropical drink umbrellas in it to make it more exotic. You're welcome.
Pacific Lime Mold1 pkg. (3 oz.) lime-flavored gelatin
1 cup boiling water
1 can (9 oz.) crushed pineapple
1 cup creamy cottage cheese
1 tsp. horse-radish
1/2 cup mayonnaise or 1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped
1/4 cup chopped nuts
Dissolve gelatin in water. Add juice from pineapple; chill until slightly thickened. Beat until frothy. Fold in remaining ingredients. Chill until set. 6 servings.
My Gram (aged 90) likes to make stuff like this. She also makes tomato aspic. It's a dying art! Maybe for good reason...
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous! Thanks for the comment! When I was tasting it, I had a vague (partially repressed?) childhood memory of eating something like this. I suspect that my grandma made something similar to this, too. Maybe gelatin salads will make an ironic comeback with hipsters? It worked with eyewear...
ReplyDeleteWe should make it happen. Next dinner party I have you can be sure there will be an aspic or "salad" front and centre. That and a nice plate of wiener pate and crackers.
ReplyDeleteMy mom made this every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. We never called it Pacific Lime Mold (although that's the name my dad just found on the recipe card from about 30 years ago!). We just called it "Mom's Green Jello Thing." Good times. :-)
ReplyDeleteI think I can shed some light on the "pineapple & jello" question. "Fresh" is the key. While I don't recall offhand the specific details, fresh pineapple (or fresh pineapple juice) contains a chemical which interacts with the gelatin and prevents it from setting. Canning, or any other processing involving heating, breaks down or transforms this into something inert with regard to gelatin. Thus, you can use canned pineapple or canned pineapple juice in Jello, but not fresh. When this recipe was published in 1962, fresh pineapple or pineapple juice was generally not available in most areas (unless you lived in Hawaii or somewhere else where pineapples could be grown), so it was safe assumption that you would be using canned pineapple juice and have no problems with the gelatin setting. The warning on the Jell-o package is probably there largely because so many older recipes call for adding pineapple to Jell-o without warning you that you have to use canned pineapple - when they were written, that was the only kind available for most practical purposes.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anonymous! I love learning the history and science behind things like this.
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