A variety of pre-packaged gelatin dessert products

Jelly, as sold in UK

Regional naming

• In the United Kingdom, Ireland, and many of the Commonwealth Nations gelatin desserts are called jelly.
• In the United States and Canada gelatin desserts are called gelatin and jello (generic name based on Jell-O).

Production

To make gelatin desserts, typically powdered gelatin is mixed with sugar, and additives such as adipic acid, fumaric acid, sodium citrate, and artificial flavorings and food colors. Very hot water is added to swell and melt the powdered gelatin. The dessert gels slowly as it cools.

Because the collagen is processed extensively, the final product is not categorized as a meat or animal product by the US federal government.

Safety

While eating tainted beef can lead to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans, there are no known cases of vCJD transmitted through collagen products such as gelatin.

Gelatin shots

A tray of gelatin shots prior to refrigeration

The American satirist and mathematician Tom Lehrer has been rumored to have been the first to invent the gelatin shot in the 1950s while working for the National Security Agency, where he developed vodka gelatin as a way to circumvent a restriction of alcoholic beverages on base^[1], but the claim that he was first is untrue. The earliest published recipe dates from 1862, found in to Mix Drinks, or The Bon Vivant's Companion'' by Jerry Thomas: the recipe calls for gelatin, cognac, rum, and lemon juice. ^[2]

The maximum alcohol content is somewhere between 19 and 20 oz. of vodka per 3 oz. package of Jell-O powder, or about 30% alcohol by volume.^[3] Prepackaged Jello shots are considered "alcopops," alcoholic beverages that are frequently marketed to underage drinkers, particularly females.^[4]

Alternatives

Some gelatinous desserts can be made with agar instead of gelatin, allowing them to congeal more quickly and at moderatly lower temperatures. Agar, a vegetable product made from seaweed, is used especially in quick jelly powder mix and Asian jelly desserts, but also as an alternative that is acceptable to vegans and vegetarians. Agar is more closely related to pectin and other gelling plant carbohydrates than to gelatin.

Another vegetarian alternative to gelatin is carrageenan. This alternative sets more firmly than agar, and is often used in kosher and halaal cooking. Though it, too, is a type of seaweed, it tends not to have an unpleasant smell during cooking as agar sometimes does.

Chemistry

Gelatin consists of partially hydrolyzed collagen, a protein which is highly abundant in some animal tissues such as bone and skin. Although many gelatin desserts incorporate fruit, some fresh fruits contain proteolytic enzymes; these enzymes cut the gelatin molecule in to peptides (protein fragments) too small to form a firm gel. The use of such fresh fruits in a gelatin recipe is a dessert that never 'sets'.

Specifically, pineapple contains the protease (protein cutting enzyme) bromelain, kiwi fruit contains actinidin, figs contain ficain, and both papaya and pawpaw contain papain. Cooking or canning denature and inactivate the proteases, so canned pineapple, for example, works fine in a gelatin dessert.

See also

• Jelly bean

References

External links

• Kraft Foods: Jell-O history
• Cooper Union history page
• Bompas & Parr: Jellymongers

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