April 10, 2001|By Candace Purdom. Special to the Tribune.
It wasn't the kind of history that students usually get in school. But "Jiggles Before Jell-O" at Winfield's Kline Creek Farm was a history lesson any way you shake it.
Visitors to the 1890s-era living history farm over the weekend learned that sparkling gelatin-based foods began in the 1400s in the Middle East and spread to Europe and then to America.
That gelatin was once served only in the wealthiest households came as a surprise to many.
"Making it was time-consuming and expensive, so only the elite could afford to serve jellied dishes," noted presenter Pat Walton, a domestic arts specialist for Kline Creek Farm, which is run by the DuPage County Forest Preserve District.
Walton said gelatin was also known as jewels of gelatine. With its quivery quality and lengthy preparation process, gelatin gained special status.
"Gelatin was not an everyday item since it involved boiling down stock from animal bones, skin and fish heads," said Walton.
That less-than-appetizing fact was news to 12-year-old Emily Jones, who attended the program Saturday. "That's disturbing," the Bartlett girl said, scrunching her face at the mention of animal parts.
But Walton, dressed in an old-fashioned cotton dress and a simple blue apron, explained that without the protein substances, gelatin wouldn't hold a shape.
As Walton whisked together ingredients in a white, stoneware bowl, she offered other factoids: Thomas Jefferson enjoyed gelatin desserts at his home in Monticello, Va., and the original recipe and rights to Jell-O were bought for just $450 in 1899.
By the early 1900s, powdered gelatin was widely available. "Today, we tend to think of gelatin dishes as salads," Walton added. "But for most of history, gelatins were considered desserts."
As the farmhouse temperature rose, Walton's desserts sagged from their carefully molded shapes. After all, air conditioning and electric refrigeration would not be welcome here.
According to Walton, Kline Creek Farm's 19th Century kitchen is kept as authentic as possible, complete with wall-mounted kerosene lamps, a woodbox, a pie safe, an icebox and a pump sink faucet.
Walton's cookbooks were period too, including one with an 1890 recipe for coffee-flavored gelatin that was among desserts prepared Saturday. For the "four cups of very strong coffee," Walton turned to the wood-burning stove--what she called "the heart of the kitchen"--and poured coffee through a strainer.
To finish the dish, Walton added the piping hot coffee to the gelatin mixture and poured the liquid into a lightly oiled metal mold.
Coffee-flavored gelatin was also something new to Emily, who said she preferred fruit-flavored Jell-O.
But Emily admitted she learned more than she expected from "Jiggles Before Jell-O."
"You wouldn't think of all this before," Emily said. "I mean that Jell-O has history, and is interesting."
On this point, Emily was not wobbly in the least.
