Jelly - Love/Hate

Photo © Rob Jones

I am ambivalent about jelly.

I have a feeling jelly is like Clowns and Marmite. You either love it or hate it. I can’t make up my mind.

Clearly, it’s a crucial ingredient in trifles. And I like trifles, but I think mainly because of the other ingredients - the sponge fingers, the cream, the booze, the fruit. But I would be just as happy if the jelly stayed at home and watched TV.

Much of my ambivalence goes back - as Freud would agree - to my childhood. It was a ‘thing’ to drop in on friends in the village, after a bike ride around the marshes, probably on a hot Saturday afternoon, for a glass of lemonade and .. wait for it … a bowl of jelly and cream, and a slice of bread and butter.

Yes, bread and butter. I initially thought this was peculiar to my own particular cut-off-from-normal-society corner of the world. For many years I would hide this terrible secret from friends and acquaintances. Later however, in dark corners, late at night, others would confess also to this odd habit.

You still can’t find much about this wayward act on the internet, and indeed it might be a fast dying out practise.

Jelly generally however has an interesting history. (Turn away now if you are a vegetarian). It was used widely to preserve meat, and was made from animal parts like pig’s ears. Think Pork Pies. Refined jelly desserts were only for the wealthy in the Renaissance. Gelatin from animal bones was a technological breakthrough and brought Jelly to the masses though it remained a status symbol, and brought out for high days and holidays.

In my childhood it was synonymous with children’s parties. But it also had the makings of disaster. It was easy to throw, spill and generally mash up with ice cream to make an inedible gloop.

I can only tolerate it in small amounts, which makes me wonder why I’ve held on to an old Jelly mould the size, if not the shape, of a rabbit. There’s only so much jelly I can bear.

Perhaps time to close the door on that part of my life, and take a trip to the charity shop.

The bigger question is … why did I just make a bowl of jelly?

RJ