Rainbow jelly:
In THE BATTLE OF THE PUMPKIN, pumpkin pie comfortably won, with pumpkin cake and pumpkin seeds coming next in the poll on pumpkins.
Now it's the turn of jelly, or jello (named after the Jell-O brand) to my American and Canadian friends, to do battle. Inexplicably Americans tend to use the 'jelly' word to describe what Brits call jam. There's already been a poll on jams - see THE BATTLE OF THE JAM.
This poll is about jelly or jello. A jelly is a gelatin-based food. Traditionally and still commonly, gelatin is derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. One of the earliest jellies, calf's foot jelly, was made from extracting and purifying gelatine from the foot of a calf! Though animal-derived gelatine is still commonly used to make jelly, nowadays there's also plant-derived gelatine, such as agar made from algae and carrageenan made from seaweed, to cater for the vegan palate.
Arguably Hannah Glasse, an English cookery writer, first coined the 'jelly' term in her book, The Art of Cookery, published in 1747, nearly 30 years before the American Declaration of Independence and 150 years before Jell-O was trademarked!
This poll on jellies or jellos is perhaps a return to our childhood, school dinners and kids birthday parties, but jelly is making a resurgence. In both America and Britain, jelly sales, plus jelly mould sales, are increasing. Because jelly is very photogenic, it's doing very well on Instagram and TikTok. Jellies wobble, and who doesn't appreciate a good wobble? Both The Guardian and The New York Times have recently published articles about the rise of the humble jelly, the latter newspaper saw the rise of the jelly “at a time when chefs are feeling pressure to produce viral visuals". There's even an Adventures in Jelly website dedicated to all things jelly!
Given nearly any food or drink can be used to flavour a jelly, jellies can be both savoury (eg chicken jelly) and sweet (eg grape jelly). Jellies are often served as a dessert (eg blancmange, rainbow jelly, raspberry jelly), sometimes used as an accompaniment to a savoury main meal (eg cranberry jelly and mint jelly are regularly used to accompany roast turkey and roast lamb respectively), occasionally used in a savoury pie (eg aspic, a meat jelly/ found in pork pies) or a dessert (eg strawberry jelly often found as a layer in an English trifle), and can even be served up as drink (eg rum, tequila and vodka jelly shots). The American mathematician, satirist and singer-songwriter Tom Lehrer claimed to have invented the vodka jelly shot in the 1950s when he worked for the US National Security Agency as a way of bypassing alcohol restrictions at the time. However, the American bartender Jerry Thomas wrote a recipe for an alcoholic punch jelly shot in his How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon Vivant's Companion book published in 1862.
There are no restrictions to this poll. Savoury and sweet jellies are both included, food and drink jellies are both included, and single-flavoured or combination-flavoured jellies are both included. Provided it involves jelly or jello, anything goes!
However, I was in a bit of a quandary about how I treat jelly beans, popular in America, and jelly babies, popular in Britain, but I decided not to wrestle too hard with this quandary as I don't think it's a game-changing quandary, not least because their flavours are more-or-less covered in this poll.
My most favourite jelly flavours are blackberry, blackcurrant, blancmange (only served from a rabbit mould), lemon and lime, mint jelly (with a roast lamb dinner), plum, rainbow, raspberry (great on its own with ice cream and as a layer in a trifle), strawberry, summer berry, summer fruit, tangerine, tropical fruit, and wine (especially cava, Champagne and Prosecco jelly), with Turkish delight (aka lokum) being the best jelly to eat. Turkish delight is just decadence to eat.
Turkish delight (aka lokum):
There are many jellies I've not tried and there's a few jellies I don't want to try, calf's foot jelly comes to mind. My least favourite jelly flavours that I've tried are cranberry, pumpkin and quince, with aspic being the worst jelly to eat. Though not keen on pork meat, aspic is another reason why I don't like pork pies.
What are your most and least favourite jellies/jellos?
What, if anything, do you have with jelly/jello?
When was the last time you ate jelly/jello?
I like ice cream with my jelly. The last time I ate jelly was at my youngest grandson's birthday party two years ago. He didn't want to share his jelly with me, but fortunately there was a strawberry jelly with ice cream dish waiting for me in the adult side of his party.
Below is a poll where you can anonymously select your most favourite jelly/jello. Unfortunately only one pick is allowed in the poll. If you don't like jelly, please don't vote but please do comment even just to say you don't like jelly/jello.
Because a poll on this site can only have a maximum of 20 answer options, unfortunately there was no room as poll options for: 7 Up, acai berry, acerola, ackee, almond, apple, apple and herb, aronia berry, aspic, aubergine/eggplant, bacon, banana, baobab, beef, beer, bilberry, blackcurrant, blancmange (a milk jelly/jello), blueberry pomegranate, boysenberry, breadfruit, bristle berry, broccoli, Brussels sprout, buffaloberry/bulberry, cabbage, calf's foot, cape gooseberry, carrot, cashew, Ceylon/Indian gooseberry, cheesecake, cherry cola, cherry lemonade, chicken, chilli/chili pepper, Chinese bramble berry, chocolate, chokeberry, cider/apple cider, citron/cedrate fruit, clementine, cloudberry, coconut, coffee, cola, conkerberry, courgette/zucchini, cucumber, cupuaçu, date, Davidson's plum, dewberry, dragonfruit, Dr Pepper, duck, elderberry, emu berry, fig, garlic, gin and tonic, ginger, ginger beer/ale, goji berry/wolfberry, gooseberry, grapefruit, grass/leaf, guava, haskap berry/honeyberry, haw/hawberry/hawthorn, huckleberry, jackfruit, jalapeño, juneberry/serviceberry, juniper berry, kiwifruit/Chinese gooseberry, konnyaku, Korean raspberry, kumquat, lemonade, lingonberry, loganberry, lychee, magnolia berry, Malabar berry, margarita, mayhaw, midgen berry, mint, muk (a Korean jelly/jello), mulberry, mushroom, onion, palm fruit, papaya, passionfruit, peanut butter, pear, pepper/bell pepper, perry, pina colada, pistachio, plum, pomegranate, pork, prickly pear, pumpkin, quince, redcurrant, rhubarb, rose hip, rowanberry, rum, Salal berry, salmonberry, sloe berry/blackthorn, spinach, starfruit, strawberry banana, strawberry daiquiri, summer berry, summer fruit, sweetcorn/corn, tangerine, tayberry, tea, tequila, thimbleberry, tomato, turkey, Turkish delight (aka lokum), ugli fruit, vodka, whitebeam berry, white currant, wine, wintergreen berry/ teaberry, yōkan (a Japanese wagashi jelly), youngberry and yuzu jelly/jello. But there's always the 'other' option for those not listed in the poll. Hopefully I've covered all the popular jellies/jellos as poll options because I never want 'other' to win a poll.
I think strawberry jelly/jello will win, but cherry, grape, lemon, orange and raspberry jelly/jello will also fare well in the poll.
Please see the first comment below to see what has won each battle of the food and drinks so far.
An English trifle with a layer of strawberry jelly:
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24 comments
By chance, I was given strawberry jelly for dessert a couple of days ago in a café menu; it wasn’t bad, although jelly is not exactly in my top-ten sweets.
I very rarely order jelly in a restaurant unless it's in a trifle. But I'm always pleasantly surprised how good a jelly is to eat when given one.
@spunkycumfun It was a cafeteria with fixed menus: you could choose one or another, but you couldn’t pick individual dishes
The jelly just came by default with the one I chose
@AuraAviatik6 Sometimes default positions are good positions!
I LOVE lime jelly. I also love mint jelly, the savoury end of the flavour, as an accompaniment to lamb or pork.
But I don't really eat jelly on a regular basis.
Did you know that muslims don't eat gelatin because it's derived from pork?
It follows that Muslims don't eat jelly.
Strawberry or cherry is good! 🍓🍒
Strawberry jelly is very popular here but not cherry jelly for some reason.
I like the citrus jellos best. Orange, lime, lemon.
Most recently I made a jello poke cake. Bake the cakem poke holes in it. Pour the liquid jello all over it.
And that was just about a week or two ago.
Now jello poke cake sounds interesting and ideal for kids (and adults).
I don't think cherry jelly can be bought in the main supermarkets here.
My fav is cherry, but it's hard to find in Japan.
It's hard to find cherry jelly here. Clearly it's an American thing!
Not a fan of jelly jello
Jelly seems to divide opinion. Thanks for stopping by.
Ugh. I have never been a fan of Jello. The texture turns me off.
It's the texture of jelly that turns me off savoury jellies, but with anything served sweet I'll forgive the texture!
For me, it's hard to beat cherry Jell-O. However, I do get cravings for other flavours. I have never considered Turkish Delight as a Jell-O, although I suppose it kind of is. I have has several types of Turkish Delight and enjoyed them all.
I've never had cherry jelly; it's not that widespread here.
I adore Turkish Delight and get it whenever it's available, which is only when I'm in the UK.
Turkish Delight is to die for!
I have not had jello in years lol I am not sure why. I guess it just doesn't appeal to me right now. Also, I have never heard of combining jello with ice cream...that's an interesting combo! I do love reading your blogs, tho!
Jelly and ice cream go well together.
Another great battle here and I did vote but I really don't eat jello that often, unless it's on my strawberry cheesecake pudding.
I hope your Monday is a momentous start to your new week..🙂
I'm guessing you voted for strawberry.
Ah yes, the lovely sight of how jello jiggles - much like bewbies. 😍
What are your most and least favourite jellies/jellos? - Red/cherry
What, if anything, do you have with jelly/jello? - Any kind they insist on putting chunks of fruit in!
When was the last time you ate jelly/jello? - A month or so ago. Granddaughter is allergic to all kinds of foods but jello is a safe desert.
I thought the link would be made between jellies and bewbies!
I love Jell-O, but it's too sugary. I do enjoy the sugar-free lime Jell-O with a shot of whipped cream because the whipped cream carbs are really really low. And by the way, jelly is jelly. Jam is not jelly as it has fruit pieces in it
Here jam covers all types of jam whether bits of fruit in it or not. If we want to be posh, we may say conserve rather than jam!
@spunkycumfun and we can also say preserves instead of conserve jelly or jam 🤪
@mysexualgoodtime Preserve is another term for jam.
For the record, Brussels sprouts won THE BATTLE OF THE VEGETABLES, bananas won THE BATTLE OF THE FRUITS, basil won THE BATTLE OF THE HERBS, garlic won THE BATTLE OF THE SPICES, cashew nuts won THE BATTLE OF THE NUTS, sunflower seeds won THE BATTLE OF THE SEEDS, roast beef won THE BATTLE OF THE ROAST DINNERS, cheesecake won THE BATTLE OF THE PUDDINGS, pepperoni won THE BATTLE OF THE PIZZA TOPPINGS, Caesar salad won THE BATTLE OF THE SALADS, green beans won THE BATTLE OF THE BEANS, watermelon won THE BATTLE OF THE MELONS, tomato-based pasta sauce won THE BATTLE OF THE HOT SAUCY DIPS, barbecue sauce won THE BATTLE OF THE COOL SAUCY DIPS, vanilla ice cream won THE BATTLE OF THE ICE CREAMS, capellini (aka angel hair) won THE BATTLE OF THE PASTAS, steak won THE BATTLE OF THE BARBECUE, romaine lettuce won THE BATTLE OF THE LETTUCES, honeycrisp apples won THE BATTLE OF THE APPLES, stout won THE BATTLE OF THE BEERS, whisky won THE BATTLE OF THE SPIRITS, clam chowder won THE BATTLE OF THE SOUPS, sourdough bread won THE BATTLE OF THE BREADS, liver won THE BATTLE OF THE OFFAL, roast turkey won THE BATTLE OF CHRISTMAS FOODS, Old Fashioned won THE BATTLE OF THE COCKTAILS, Americano coffee won THE BATTLE OF THE COFFEES, green tea won THE BATTLE OF THE TEAS, maple syrup won THE BATTLE OF THE PANCAKES, barbecue sauce won THE BATTLE OF THE CONDIMENTS, ribeye steak won THE BATTLE OF THE STEAKS, portobello mushrooms won THE BATTLE OF THE MUSHROOMS, beefsteak tomatoes won THE BATTLE OF THE TOMATOES, barbecue crisps won THE BATTLE OF THE CRISPS, strawberries won THE BATTLE OF THE BERRIES, crab won THE BATTLE OF THE SHELLFISH, vanilla yogurt won THE BATTLE OF THE YOGURTS, jasmine rice won THE BATTLE OF THE RICE, chicken wings won THE BATTLE OF HOT FINGER FOODS, cheeses won THE BATTLE OF COLD FINGER FOODS, dry red wine won THE BATTLE OF THE WINES, tap water won THE BATTLE OF WATER, blueberry muffins won THE BATTLE OF THE MUFFINS, cheese won THE BATTLE OF THE CHARCUTERIE, cow milk hard cheese won THE BATTLE OF THE CHEESE, burgers won THE BATTLE OF FAST FOOD, olive oil won THE BATTLE OF THE OILS, beef stew won THE BATTLE OF THE STEW, cow milk won THE BATTLE OF THE MILK, butter won THE BATTLE OF THE BAKED POTATO, salad won THE BATTLE OF THE SIDE DISH, pizza won THE BATTLE OF THE SAVOURY PIE, apple pie won THE BATTLE OF THE SWEET PIE, coffee won THE BATTLE OF THE HOT BEVERAGE, iced tea won THE BATTLE OF THE COLD BEVERAGE, salmon won THE BATTLE OF THE FISHES, rice won THE BATTLE OF THE GRAINS, cheese won THE BATTLE OF THE OMELETTE, cream won THE BATTLE OF THE DOUGHNUTS, chocolate won THE BATTLE OF THE MILKSHAKES, butter won THE BATTLE OF THE TOAST TOPPINGS, salted peanuts won THE BATTLE OF THE PEANUTS, and strawberry jam won THE BATTLE OF THE JAM, flaky pastry won THE BATTLE OF THE PASTRY, bacon sandwich won THE BATTLE OF THE SANDWICH, orange juice won THE BATTLE OF THE JUICES, chocolate won THE BATTLE OF THE COOKIES, Scottish single malt whisky won THE BATTLE OF WHISKY, and pumpkin pie won THE BATTLE OF THE PUMPKIN.