LEROYPENNYSAVER&NEWS - SEPTEMBER 6, 2015
“JELL-ODendelikatastedeserten”
byLynneBelluscio
Every two years I attend the
European Open Air Museum
meeting. I have been attending
these meetings for twelve years
asa representativeof theAssocia-
tionofLivingHistory,Farmsand
Agricultural Museums. Twelve
years ago, we met in Scotland
andNorthern England, followed
by Finland, then Holland and
Belgium,DenmarkandGermany.
This yearwemet inNorway.
The focuson thisyear’smeet-
ing was the installation of con-
temporary exhibits at several of
theEuropeanmuseums.Amuse-
um inDenmark and one inOslo
havemoved inbuildings from the
1960s and 1970s. There is a lot
of discussion about whether this
makes sense and whether other
museums should follow in that
direction.
Many of thesemuseums have
previously focused on their na-
tive culture and architecture, but
the contemporary exhibits allow
them to introduce the recent
immigrant stories. It would be
as if Genesee Country Museum
decided tomove ina ranchhouse
- evenmy house from 1969 and
furnish it and have a couple of
folks “interpret”what itwas like
growingup in1969. Istillhaven’t
decided whether I think it is a
good ideaor a fad.But it suredid
stir up discussion.
I had the opportunity to talk
with some folks from the Czech
Republic over dinner one night
and met with some old friends
from England and Denmark.
Whenwewere coming out from
one session, Olaf Edin from
Sweden came up and said, “I
was hoping you were going to
be here, because two years ago,
in Germany, I promised to send
you this, and I never put it in the
mail, so I brought it with me,
hoping to see you again.” What
he gaveme was a color copy of
a Jell-O recipebook, inSwedish.
What ismore remarkable, is that
on the inside it says that it was
printed inStockholm.
I’m not sure that
Jell-Owasnevermar-
keted inEurope.All I
can think is thatwhen
people were getting
ready to emigrate
from Sweden to the
United States, they
might have been giv-
en a recipe bookwith
American recipes
written in Swedish.
Wehaveacopyof the
samebook inYiddish
and in French. The
Frenchbookwaspub-
lished inCanada.We
also know that recipe
books were printed
in Spanish and some
Jell-O boxes were
printed inGerman.
The recipe book
is the 1922 Norman
Rockwell version
with the grandmother
on the front and the
little girl and her doll
on the back page.
This is the same il-
lustration used in the
French version and
the Yiddish version.
And I had to ask - -
“does the woman in
the illustration remind
you of your Swedish
grandmother?” “Yes
she does, Olaf said.”
And she looks like a
Jewish grandmother
and I guess a French
Canadianmother too.
Icompared the rec-
ipes in Swedish and in English
and I think they are different,
but since I cannot read Swedish
it’s hard to tell. However, the
last recipe in theEnglishbook is
Pimento Salad that uses lemon
Jell-O and in the Swedish book
it’s Banan-Sallad. (Banana sal-
ad?) that uses raspberry Jell-O.
“Da pulvret ar fullkomligt up-
plost, slas det klara geleet I sma
vattenskoljda forma, som fyllas
till¼vareftermassan far stelna.”
(I havefiguredout that “apelsin”
Jell-O isorange. “Citron” Jell-O
is lemon, and “hallon” Jell-O is
raspberry. In fact on the back
page, theboxof Jell-O illustrated
is for raspberry–Hallon–Jell-O.
So now I need to find a box of
Jell-Owritten inSwedish for the
collection!)
Ifanyoneknowssomeonewho
could translate the Swedish rec-
ipe book, I’d really like to know
what it says, especially the inside
of the front cover.
English recipebook.
Front cover.
Notice thebox of Swedish Jell-O.
Swedish recipebook.
