welcome friends welcome back to the
kitchen welcome back to sunday morning
in the old cookbook show today we're
going to do a recipe out of this
1931 knox gelatin cookbook it is
subtitled
dainty desserts candies and salads
i have i have a whole collection of
cookbooks from
gelatin companies from about this time
period from the early 1900s to
just before world war ii
and they're all pretty much the same
they they all
really sort of push this idea of gelatin
is more than just a sweet dessert
and the salads and um and
and things in them are something that
really sort of took off post world war
ii
i mean they were big in this time period
but post world war ii you really saw
a move forward and you see a lot of
cookbooks from the 1960s and 19 early
1970s
that present these jello salads that are
a little bit strange to me i know that
my great aunts
and my mom made these and they always
showed up
at family suppers and family gatherings
and then they died away um there are
still people who make them they still
occasionally show up
they're not as big as they used to be
but in the 1930s when this was published
they were really sort of pushing out
this idea
that you take gelatin and you stuff
whatever you want
inside of it and one of the things that
i have a problem with is that sometimes
they're sweet and savory and sometimes
they have
textures that don't quite go together
for me
this one that we're going to do today is
called meatloaf
and after studying these books for quite
some time
i landed on doing the meatloaf one
because it's mostly savory or it's all
savory
there is no sweet component we're going
to start out in this glass mixing jug
with one
package of knox gelatin still made today
and it is probably the only one on the
grocery store shelves where we live
or the major one on the grocery store
shelves to that i'm going to add some
cold
water and we're just going to give that
a bit of a stir
and let it rehydrate now the recipe says
that if you make the full recipe it
serves 12 but feel free to cut it in
half and only make it
so it serves six and i think that's an
interesting
comment for the recipe to make
when you're cooking at home don't be
afraid
to double or triple a recipe or cut the
recipe in half
for most recipes you can do that at home
there's no threat of not getting it
right by doubling or tripling it
or cutting it in half i know a lot of
people are afraid of that
so in this pot i put some beef stock and
it says to well season it so i'm going
to put in some
extra pepper
and some salt then i'm supposed to add
in
some celery which i've chopped up
and a little bit of onion which is
chopped up and i'm gonna bring this to
a boil and let it boil for three minutes
okay now i strain out the solids we just
want the liquid
we're just imparting the flavor i guess
into the beef broth in case it wasn't uh
flavorful enough
smells really good smells really good
now it says to put in
a little bit of lemon juice except if
you're using beef it gives you
a selection of meats that you can put
into your gelatin meatloaf
i've decided to use beef so i've got
some ground beef that i've already
cooked off
we don't have to put that in yet but it
says that if you're going to use ground
beef
put in worcester sauce so um
let's see how much should we put in
let's give it a few really good shakes
there we go that's about a tablespoon
we'll give that a stir
now it says to let this cool until it
starts to stiffen this was 1931
it was during the great depression but
it was also the dawn of the refrigerator
and if you had electricity and you still
had a bit of money in your bank account
apparently you were buying refrigerators
and refrigerators were selling
like hot cakes in this time period so
into the fridge
just for a little bit
now it calls for a little bit of chopped
up parsley
so there we go that's ready to go
beef is ready to go pimentos are ready
to go
and this has thickened up
probably a little too much i probably
left it in the fridge too long and it's
that
fine line that i have never quite
grasped
between not enough and everything sinks
to the bottom
or too much where it gets a little bit
clumpy but in goes
the ground beef in goes
the parsley and it calls
for just a few of these sliced pimentos
now if i wasn't following the recipe
i would put in some sliced hot peppers
hot pickled peppers
i would put in maybe a pickled
cocktail onions i think all of those
would go really well
in this mixture so we're going to give
this a mix
and it's kind of interesting because
there's way more
add-ins than there is gelatin
now instead of one giant mold i'm going
to put it into
four little smaller individual molds
let's see if i even get four who knows
actually this works out perfectly
i'm just gonna get two individual molds
one for each of julie and i
how perfect is that she's gonna be so
pleased so i'm gonna stick these in the
fridge
to let them come together completely
and we'll pull them out for tasting in a
little while
hi glenn hey jules hi friends
forks yeah okay
i
mentioned this and uh i had my usual
response to
jello things i'm sure i've mentioned
this before there's a distinct
generational
thing in my family those who like jello
salads and stuff and those that don't
well this is this is though building on
this is the easy convenient
terrain yes yeah so it's difficult it's
building on on something that has a you
know
hundreds and hundreds of years of
and i know that i'm being unfair because
i know that i often really like
jello things but i always forget
and anyway let's try it's quite nice
with the red pimentos and the looks
lovely
and the green parsley
yeah maybe a spoon would have been
better
let's see
wait one i am being too harsh
it's like a chilled hot weather
meatloaf
i'm still not fully convinced but i
think the parsley wins me over that is
that is um
like picnic in the park meatloaf yeah
yeah really refreshing isn't it i would
you know i would
probably put something a little with a
little bit of a bite in it
but so as i was filling these i said
pickled hot peppers
or little pickled cocktail onions
and and put those in and so you'd get a
little bit more of a
but the depth of flavor is pretty good
i'm
kind of surprised as i rail about how
much i'm not sure i'm gonna like it
because i just have it
carrots and jello no i think
i think grated carrots and jello are a
step
too far for me but that's good i like
that
there you go um maybe a little bit more
pepper maybe a little bit something to
give it a bit of bite
there you go for your next picnic nox
gelatin meatloaf
from 1931. it's a winner
thanks for stopping by see you again
soon
you