Controversial comfort foods are a rarity. Usually, the cozy classics that spark joy, like macaroni and cheese or holiday stuffing, only divide us along the most minute lines of an ingredient or two. But when disputes over meal-time mainstays arise, at least across the United States, they usually have to do with foods that don’t cross over certain geographical, cultural, or ancestral lines. Think noodle kugel, tater tot hotdish, or oyster casserole.
TV personality, food scientist, and author Alton Brown knows a thing or two about divisive culinary traditions. When promoting his collection of essays “Food for Thought” on Nick Gillespie’s Substack, Brown spoke eloquently about how being from the South informs his worldview. “Being an aware Southern cook means understanding the incredible culinary heritage of the Southern experience,” he explained. Part of that heritage includes one iconic Southern staple for which there’s always room: Jell-O. “Jell-O-based salads are a big thing in the South,” he said. “I love them and always have, and I always will.”
For the uninitiated, Jell-O salad isn’t just a serving of the brightly colored gelatin dessert. It’s a mixture of Jell-O and a myriad of other ingredients, like nuts, fruit, fruit juice, whipped cream, and evaporated milk. Jell-O salad might even be made with vegetables, cottage cheese, or mayonnaise. It’s as if every family has their own recipe that’s been passed down through generations, along with the Jell-O mold that has always shaped it before serving. As Brown noted, this type of generational connectivity has a special place within the Southern sensibility.
Alton Brown’s unapologetic Jell-O salad recipe of choice
Former Food Network star Alton Brown grew up in Georgia and spent quite a bit of time at his mother’s and grandmother’s elbows in the kitchen. Of course, it’s no surprise then that his favorite Jell-O salad, and the recipe he lovingly shares on his own website, is from his grandmother Ma Mae. “My grandmother’s [recipe], my mouth waters just thinking about it,” he told Nick Gillespie in an interview. “It’s lemon and orange Jell-O with pecans and chunks of pineapple and whole cranberry sauce.”
A Christmas Jell-O recipe, this version takes the usual seasonal ingredients of orange, cranberry, and nutty pecans and brightens them up with lemon and pineapple. With vivid flavors and the creamy consistency of cranberry sauce broken up by crunchy nuts and tart canned pineapple chunks, what’s not to like? “There is something texturally very satisfying to me about that,” Brown said. His grandmother’s recipe can be made in a typical 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish, but if you have an ancestral Jell-O mold on hand, or if you’ve seen one at a vintage store and had to have it, this is its time to shine.
