Recipe: Cherry Coke Jello Salad

Yes, you read that correctly. Cherry Coke Salad. A jello salad. I recently inherited all of my great grandmother’s recipe books and tins and cards which contain an alarming amount of gelatin based “salads.” As a person who is completely horrified by the idea of a molded gelatin salad with things suspended in them like alien babies waiting to attack you, or even worse, savory meat based alien babies waiting to attack you, I had to figure out why on earth someone would want to eat alien babies, er.. gelatin salads.

The history of gelatin salads is pretty interesting. I won’t go too in-depth, but basically, in the 19th century creating gelatin was an extremely labor intensive process and only found in homes that had a large enough kitchen staff to take the time to create it. It was a symbol of wealth and status. Skip ahead to WWI where you have industrialized gelatin that had been invented by a cough syrup maker. This gelatin was cheap, prepackaged, and already contained sugar during a time when sugar rations were normla. The industrialized nature also meant that the average person could serve what the wealthy people had been eating while also stretching leftovers. Somewhere in there is something about Victorian-era values of neatness and that’s why molded jello “salads” were preferred over the salad we know today because the thought of having a rogue piece of lettuce sneak to the edge of a plate was enough to give any housewife of the time a case of the horribles.

So what happened after the war and items like sugar were more readily available? American tastes had already changed. The quick open a can of something put it in a bowl and serve was seen as being lazy. That meant the molded jello salad was here to stay. And then the country went INSANE when lime gelatin (now officially branded as Jello) hit the market (it was all unflavored before that) to the point that ENTIRE COOKBOOKS have been created on what to do with lime Jello (hint: it was a lot of jello salad). Including something called “frosting” made of shrimp.

This jello salad, thankfully, does not have shrimp frosting, but it does include actual cola. This recipe also would not be considered “vintage” because, with the inclusion of canned cherry pie filling, my guess is that it was created in the late 80s/early 90s. Yes, it includes cola and cherry pie filling. And it’s insanely sweet. Like, if I had a spoonful of sugar or a spoonful of this salad, the sugar would be the less sweet option of the two. Cherry Coke Salad is one of those things that you sort of need to make and try just once, somewhere where there is a lot of people because the recipe makes a GIANT bowl of it. OH, and add cool whip to the top, trust me.

CHERRY COKE JELLO SALAD INGREDIENTS

• 1 20oz can crushed pineapple
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 6oz package of cherry jello
• 1 21oz can cherry pie filling
• 3/4 cup cola
• 1 container cool whip

CHERRY COKE JELLO SALAD DIRECTIONS

1. Drain pineapple, reserving juice.
2. Heat pineapple juice and water in the microwave until boiling.
3. Add in gelatin and stir until dissolved, being careful not to splash it unless you want your kitchen to look forever like a giant red gummy bear exploded everywhere.
4. Stir in pie filling and cola and pour into your serving bowl.
5. Put in fridge until slightly thickened.
6. Fold in crushed pineapple.
7. Refrigerate until firm. Top with cool whip.
8. Wonder why in the world you ever thought making this was a good idea and then realize it would be perfect to serve at a Halloween party and call it zombie’s brains.
9. Watch as your husband doesn’t even flinch when you ask him if he’d like to try some zombie’s brains and takes a bite.

PS. This recipe was obviously cut out from a magazine, but I have no idea which one. But if anyone knows which magazine 20 years ago had this recipe with an ad for a swan barometer or a Thomas Kinkade garden clock that makes nature noises on the back, let me know, and I’ll properly credit this!

xx