This recipe has it all. Cutesy title, vintage brand-name product, and gelatin.
What could go wrong?
- 1 can (16 ounces) Cling Peach Slices
- 1 package (1 tablespoon) unflavored gelatin
- Imitation mayonnaise
- Paprika (to garnish)
- Drain liquid from 1 can (16 ounces) of your favorite Tasti Diet low calorie fruit into saucepan. Add 1 package (1 tablespoon) unflavored gelatin. Add 1 drop food coloring of your choice. Heat and stir to dissolve. Stir mixture into fruit in can. Chill to set. To remove, allow can to reach room temperature, open can bottom and push molded contents through.
- Using Tasti Diet Cling Peach Slices prepared as above. Slice into four equal servings. Place on a bed of lettuce and top with Tasti Diet May-lo-naise, or any other imitation mayonnaise. Garnish with paprika. Serves 4. 66 calories each.
My first reaction to this recipe was “whaaat?” Gelatin in a can of fruit. But there’s actually a pretty interesting story behind this recipe, and behind the whole line of Tillie Lewis Tasti-Diet foods.
First off, Tillie Lewis. This mid-century food magnate was born Myrtle Ehrlich in Brooklyn, NY. She originally made her fortune (and a name for herself) canning first pomodoro tomatoes, then a variety of fruits and vegetables.
Tasti-Diet was invented in 1952, allegedly after a doctor told Tillie that she should lose some weight. (I say allegedly because, based on photos of the Tomato Queen from around that time, she didn’t significantly change size. It was all marketing drama.)
And Tasti-Diet came in 36 varieties — including Tasti-Diet May-lo-naise. That’s right: MAY-LO-NAISE. They even trademarked it. I love it.
The Tasti-Diet formula replaced sugar with saccharine for a range of low-cal foods, including canned fruit. Obviously “heavy syrup” wouldn’t be the modern approximation to Tasti-Diet. But, it’s possible to get Splenda-sweetened juice, or regular fruit juice… I went with plain juice.
Buzz has a soft spot for peach in jello — we have fond memories of visiting Longfellow’s Wayside Inn when we lived in Massachusetts, and their Jerusha Peach Mold is quite good. It is served with some sweet fruity whipped cream topping thing.
This is a rather cruel imitation. “So, uh… what’s that white stuff on top?”
“Guess.”
“… mayonnaise?”
“Wait, how’d you know that?”
“Because it was the worst possibility.”
BEST TASTING FACE!
“Wow, that’s revolting!”
Verdict: Mayonnaise makes it revolting.
Tasting notes:
Fruit in gelatin isn’t bad at all. It’s actually kind of nice to be able to make it from scratch, although it’s not as convenient as just buying fruit cups. The mayo — or worse, imagine it with imitation mayo! — just doesn’t belong on a sweet fruit salad.
Del Monte makes a line of No Sugar Added canned fruit (sweetened with Splenda) that would be ideal for this recipe. I am inspired to try the “make it in the can” approach with another vintage fruit/gelatin recipe – Pears in lime jello. The original calls for making it in a rectangular dish, with pear halves in lime jello. Cut into squares with a pear-half centered, serve topped with mayo and grated mild-cheddar.
Miracle Whip is imitation mayonnaise…well, the light version…It works a lot better with fruit (as I grew up with a fruit salad that used it as a binder). Surprised you didn’t use that.
I was torn between the artificial sweetener and regular fruit juice, but tend to get headaches from Splenda.
Adding cheddar to this would be pretty interesting! Molding the gelatin in the can does get you a nice cylindrical shape, somewhat prettier than more typical Jello squares.
Honestly, didn’t think of it. I’ve had fruit and vegetable salads with mayo in them before that were pretty decent, and so I was surprised that in this case it didn’t work. Probably a problem with the proportions.
Miracle Whip is quite a bit sweeter than mayo, so I’m guessing it would have been at least slightly less horrible. Maybe. Ugh. I also get headaches from artificial sweeteners, plus they have that weird bitter aftertaste. So you were probably better off using the regular stuff! Imaging how much grosser it *could* have been if you dumped a bunch of Equal or Sweet n Low in there!
Extra sweetener was not going to make this grosser. In fact, anything in that direction probably would have helped. It was the sour, salty taste of the mayo that was just fundamentally wrong when paired with the sweet fruit flavor.
“slightly less horrible” 😀
I don’t think Miracle Whip tastes anything like mayo – it is sweet and tangy. Maybe it needed the additional sugar and lemon like in a Waldorf salad.
Fruit in jelly (as we call jello in the UK) is a popular kids' dessert …. erm but not with mayo. Sweet cream yeah.
I tried some of the leftovers with Miracle Whip instead of homemade mayo. It was just as bad.
Well, we’ve seen our share of Epic Tomface™ on the blog, it was only a matter of time until we got some Epic Buzzface™.
The problem with this recipe is that you used mayonnaise instead of MAY-LO-NAISE. Really, that would have made all the difference.
Well, it was worth a shot, anyway. I have some old salad recipes where the dressing is equal parts of Miracle Whip mixed with Cool Whip. Maybe that is what it needs to be edible.