What's Inside Jell-O?

The History of Jell-O

                The sweet, colorful treat that we know as Jell-O is actually made of bones, hides, and connective tissues. Hard to believe? In fact, it is true!

                All gelatin, both food and laboratory grade, is made using a similar process. It starts with discarded animal products – bones and skin. All of these tough parts are made of proteins. (In fact, gelatin is a protein). We can extract gelatin from any animal, but pigs and cows are the most common. Commercial gelatin starts by grinding up the bones and then soaking those bones in a strong base solution to soften them. This mixture passes through progressively stronger acid solutions until the product does not resemble bones at all! Finally, hours of boiling extract the gelatin, after which it is skimmed off the top and dried into a powder. From here, manufacturers can add sugar, colors, and flavorings that will turn gelatin into the jiggly dessert we all know.

                In 1845, an engineer, Peter Cooper developed the process of extracting gelatin. Sometime later, in 1895, a cough syrup manufacturer, Pearl B. Wait, purchased the patent from Cooper and adapted the gelatin recipe into a prepackaged form, which his wife, Mary, named Jell-O. The rest is history!

A little about Pineapple

                The pineapple plant (Ananas comosus) is a monocot, or grass-like plant, that belongs to the bromeliad family. It is thought to have originated in Brazil. In the 1950s, pineapple became the United States’ second most important fruit and Hawaii led the world in both quantity and quality of pineapples. However, times have changed and now, all canned pineapple comes from overseas, largely from the Philippines. As with some other tropical fruits, the pineapple fruit contains an enzyme that breaks down, or digests, protein. The protease (protein-digesting) enzyme in pineapple is bromelain, which is extracted and sold in products like meat tenderizer. Papaya, another tropical fruit, also contains an enzyme, called papain, which digest protein. It can also be found in meat tenderizer.

How does this sweet fruit and its enzymes affect Jell-O? We are about to find out!