We Can See Why No One Makes This Vintage Meatloaf Anymore

If there's one thing mid-century chefs loved, it's gelatin. Restaurant kitchens and home cooks alike couldn't get enough Jell-O, and it made its way into main dishes, desserts, and more. From gelatinous 7-Up Cheese Aspic to a Cherry-Catsup Jell-O Salad with olives (seriously), the post-WWII era loved seeing exactly how they could make dinner wiggle and jiggle. 

One of the (many) gelatin-infused dishes we're happy to leave in the past: jellied hamburger loaf. Unlike some mid-century foods, this isn't one of the 1950s favorites that deserve to make a comeback. Loaded with hamburger, vegetable soup, chopped onion, and, of course, gelatin, jellied hamburger offered a slimy, gooey texture — nothing like the meatloaf many of us know and love today.

Gelatin — a water-soluble, collagen-derived animal protein that's liquid when hot and solid when chilled — was all the rage back in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. There are a few reasons why this creation isn't suitable to the modern palate. Most of us shy away from especially fatty cuts of meat, and the addition of gelatin to hamburger is akin to a super-fatty batch of ground beef. The salt factor in the original recipe is also super high, making dishes like this a poor choice for today's more health-conscious home cook. While we can't get behind super-salty gelatin dishes in general, the idea of adding a tomato-based soup to meatloaf isn't the worst idea we've heard. The ketchup-like consistency of condensed soup and the beef-broth-infused vegetables make sense for meatloaf — served hot, of course.

While most of us today agree that we don't want to see the food on our plates jiggle, 1950s home chefs couldn't get enough of gelatin-infused dishes. Gelatin dishes weren't actually an American invention — their history can be traced all the way back to medieval Europe, where jiggly, gelatin-infused dishes were considered foods exclusive to the plates of royalty. Procuring gelatin in those days wasn't nearly as easy as running to the supermarket — it took hours, and required expensive ingredients (including calves feet, mace, and hartshorn, a type of ammonia derived from deer antlers).

During the American Revolutionary period, gelatin was still considered a delicacy. In the mid-1800s, gelatin became more readily available as the J and G company based in Edinburgh, Scotland, began exporting boxed gelatin to the United States. In 1889, Charles Knox developed pre-granulated gelatin. Jell-O kicked off in 1899 after Orator Francis Woodward began an advertising campaign that targeted church socials, fairs, and community gatherings. Gelatin made its way into copious American desserts, and, unfortunately, dinners — it's hard to beat a suddenly-cheap product with an uber-fancy reputation. 

While a gelatin-infused meatloaf might have been fit for a king once upon a time, we're happy to leave it in the past. We're glad to hang onto gelatin for some other reasons, though. Adding Jell-O to cake mix is downright magical, and we also can't get enough of ginger-ale-infused Jell-O for a surprisingly fizzy Jell-O salad.