Project 52: Rationing - Week 6 - Cherry-Grapefruit Pudding
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| Cherry-Grapefruit Pudding |
Happy Valentine's Day!
This has been another eventful week of life with my whole family progressively falling ill starting Sunday and Winter Storm Pax dumping about 20" of snow on us. Yikes!
Thankfully I'm feeling better today and I was able to finally turn some attention to this week's rationing recipe. I've been interested in the wide variety of WWII desserts using gelatin, flavored and unflavored, which are so iconic to America's food history. In my perusals I assumed I would see a ton of Jell-O brand advertisements, but I haven't seen any so far. That isn't to say the ads aren't out there, I just haven't seen the ads in the magazines I've looked at. (Jell-O officially started around 1900. Click on the link to read a history.) In all the 1940s recipes I've read, they all call for unflavored gelatin or a fruit-flavored gelatin, but don't specify any particular brand.
The funny thing with gelatin recipes is that they're not always for desserts. I can't remember which 1940s magazine I saw it in, but there was one recipe that called for lemon-flavored gelatin and tomato juice among other things. I shudder to think of eating it, but I should really just suck it up and try it anyway. haha!
So, I turned back to my Victory Cook Book since it has a few good recipes using gelatin. I was going to try an interesting-looking Butterscotch Spanish Cream recipe that uses unflavored gelatin, but as we've been sick, the Cherry-Grapefruit Pudding sounded so refreshing! Don't be fooled by the British name "pudding" though. This is a clear Jello-like gelatin recipe all the way. It's a fairly simple and quick recipe too, which was even better. I didn't want anything complicated today since I'm still feeling tired.
That was the great thing about gelatin recipes - they were a quick and easy solution to round out your meal after a long and busy day at your war job and fulfilling your homemaking responsibilities.
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| I juiced some grapefruit - luckily it's in season. At least it was on sale anyway. |
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| Then I mixed up the cherry gelatin with the hot water. I added the grapefruit juice and then let it chill in the fridge until thickened, but not set. |
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| 6 portions of Cherry-Grapefruit Pudding ready to chill Looking yummy! |
An hour later I pulled out a portion and gave it a try. Oh, my, it was as delicious and refreshing as I had been hoping for! This recipe is a keeper. The only thing I would leave out would be the nuts. I'm not fond of crunchy things in my gelatin. The grapefruit and cherries, though, are perfect! I never would have thought to put grapefruit in cherry gelatin, but it's awesome. Also, the addition of the grapefruit juice adds another wonderful notch of tartness that it needs. The recipe says to serve it with gingersnaps, so of course I had to make a batch of my favorite ginger snappies!
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| A delicious, refreshing dessert of Cherry-Grapefruit Pudding and Gingersnaps! |
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| I love these recipes from the Victory Cook Book because they have the 3 and 6 portion options. |
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| "Desserts that spare sugar" - Victory Cook Book by Lysol. I love this section - it says a lot! I had no idea commercial ice cream making had ceased. And I like how they list all the sweetening options available to Americans. I'm afraid the British weren't quite so lucky in their selection. |
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| So bright and cheery! (I also had to show you my newly acquired Fire King Philbe custard dishes. Aren't they lovely? I got a matching casserole dish too! :-) ) |
And... surprise!
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| Look what I found in the June 1943 Ladies' Home Journal Magazine! It's an advertisement for my Victory Cook Book! The very one I've been using. Haha! Fancy that! Sometimes I'm so tempted to "send away" for these booklets just to see what would happen. ;-) |