Jellobotomy

Fear not friends. Although I took a hiatus in blogging about gelatin shots, I've not taken a break from making them. Remember Lost? That super huge phenomenon that took up precious time for the past seven years? Well, in honor of the mush it made my brain trying to determine what was the smoke monster? Where did The Others come from? Why did they just drop the Walt plot line, I made a mushy gelatin shot brain.

The mold I got on-line and for the gelatinous creation I made a peach/orange shot with food coloring to get the perfect grey matter coloration. The detail of the mold is awesome. You can see the cerebellum, pons, and brainstem. Which, because of a alcohol and the brain curriculum I developed, I can tell you in excruciating detail how they are affected by alcohol. But I digress.

The Jello was amazing, the final episode of Lost...... Well... still debatable.

I say Jello You say Jelly

Hello all,

I made a quick trip over to London this past weekend and had the chance to make some alcoholic jellies, as they are called over in the U.K.

My first alcohol novelty encounter was during a walk along theThames. There I discovered that you can sell alcohol out of a street cart in downtown London. These blokes were making boozie smoothies right outside the National Theater. According to the owner, you only need a personal alcohol license and a premise license. The National Theater had granted him the premise license. Such a different world over there. I think I'd have to give my first born's first born to get a license in Boston. I had a delicious Strawberry smoothie with a shot of Bacardi and Antonio had the Peach Vodka smoothie.

From there we strolled over to the headquarters of Bompas and Parr. Alas, there was no Willy Wonkesque factory to be seen. They were out at Carnival at Notting Hill, as was most of London, eating and drinking and getting merry like Christmas.

Sunday night, I had the fortune of eating a delicious Sunday roast dinner at Hannah and Chris's. As the conversation progressed to jello shots (OK, what else do I talk about!??! I dragged the conversation to it and they politely listened), Hannah showed me the sheet gelatin that they use in the UK. There is no flavoring, similar to the powdered Knox that we use in the States.


As a thank you for the dinner I made an orange juice, peach, vodka jelly for their picnic the next day. It was my first time using metric scales outside of a lab. (Why do we still use cups and ounces?????) Playing by ear, I dissolved the gelatin, OJ, splash of orangina, and some water in a pan. Then I cooled it and mixed in Smirnoff and some grenadine. I think I made a decent treat for my new English friends.


The dinner conversation also led to savory meat alcohol jellies. I think I've found a whole new branch to delve into. Hmmm.

That's it for now. Maybe I should make a trek around the globe exploring the wide world of jellies. Feel free to sponsor me.

Tequila Blue

This past week, I had the perfect weather to make more gelatinous creations. For a beautiful garden party in Provincetown, I made some Margarita and Berry Blue geks. The bluberries are just past season, but still abundant and inexpensive at markets around town.

I would like to make blueberry puree and then make a tri-layered shot. Next time....next time.

Salieri-o

Have you seen or read Amadeus? There's a scene when Mozart makes his entrance and Salieri, the court composer, plays a piece he wrote to welcome Mozart. Then Mozart critiques it, sits down and makes a masterpiece of it. Well, that's a little bit about how I feel right now. Except I didn't receive any harsh criticism nor am I feeling burning jealousy. So I guess, my situation is not really like that at all, rather, I have, through the power of the internet, met my Mozart of Jello. Mozarts to be exact- Bompas and Parr.

I went onto the Jello website yesterday to see what those crazy Kraft conglomerates were up to and I saw this posting about the Jellymongers- Bompas and Parr. I clicked on the link and WHOA! The creativity and expertise these gents show is ridonkulous! They had a jello White House. Hey, I had a jello White House(see my posting from InAGARation in January. But, theirs... oh my lord..their's made mine look like a three year's old drawing of his family. You know, the heart is in it, but the fine motor skills aren't quite developed.

So check out these guys and the amazing work they do over in London. Road trip anyone?

Drag Queen Jello Wrestling!

It's been a busy summer for Gelology and my postings have all but stopped. Ok, they stopped, forget the "all but." But it's not for lack of fun and events. Back in July the infamous Drag Queen, Kris Knieval, was hosting Drag Queen Jello Wrestling at a bar in Boston. Jello, wigs, makeup... sounds like a recipe for disaster and fun!

Kris's mother works for a retirement home, so we were able to purchase the gallon bags of Jello which save you significant amounts of money. Their first time doing the event, Kris told me they cleared out an entire grocery store's stock of 3oz Jello boxes! This bulk Jello box had three different flavors, Lime, Orange, and Lemon. Kris told me he avoided any red Jello, as the wrestlers ended up stained pink for the next 24 hours.

The Jello Wrestling was scheduled for Monday night, so the day before we met up in the kitchen of the bar and began preparing forty gallons of Jello.




















After four hours, we were done. The containers were in the walk in and we walked away sweaty and sticky. From the Jello! Come on people.






On Monday, I arrived at the bar and the tech guys were busy inflating the pool. I brought out the numerous containers that the Jello had been placed in, and it was wiggly and jiggly and ready to go. We dumped the jello into the pool. It made a satisfying sound as the large chunks of jello releases from the container and slurped into the pool. The unfortunate thing was green, orange, and yellow makes....brown. Not so pretty.

The drag queens showed up and so did the patrons. By the time the jello shots came out and the drag queens started wrestling, more fun was had than a barrel full of monkeys. Make that more fun than a jello-filled barrel of cross-dressing monkeys.

The Mandarin

Who doesn't have fond memories of Jello with fruit embedded in it from their elementary school cafeteria. I was always a fan of the green Jello with mandarin orange slices in it. However, I was never a fan of the orange jello with shaved carrots.

So, I created a new gelatin shot with my gelatin/fruit combination.

Plus, I used a new silicon mold I purchased at AC Moore Arts and Crafts store. The mold looked like little suns and with the lack of sunshine we've been having in Boston, I figured these shots could brighten up the day.


The Madarin

1 6oz box lime gelatin
1 envelope Knox
1 can (14oz) mandarin orange slices
1 1/2 cup Absolut Mandarin
1/2 peach schnapps



When I was a kid I remember drinking the juice from the can, so I decided to add the juice and slices into the shots. Next up, I'll make some shots with fruit cocktail.

Meanwhile, if you have a facebook account, become a fan of Gelology!

Happy almost 4th of July.

The Experiment

Yesterday I received an email asking "Can you make jello shots using just Knox and alcohol?" First, it was exciting to get an email soliciting advice about gelatin shots. Second, it reminded me of an experiment I did with a friend about a month ago. He wanted to make pure Scotch shots, so we tried.

There are two main problems with making pure alcohol shots. The first is that you have to dissolve the Knox in hot to boiling liquid. Alcohol has a lower evaporation point than water so when you boil it, the alcohol disappears, thus negating the effect of a super packed shot. The second problem is gelatin doesn't set as well in alcohol. But that you can overcome by just adding more Knox. A general rule of thumb is one envelope knox for every cup of liquid. For pure alcohol shot, try 1 1/2 to 2 envelopes for every cup of liquid.

Here was our experiment:

Scotch- Neat and Jiggly

1 envelope Knox gelatin
1/4 cup Scotch (to heat up)
3/4 cup Scotch (room temperature)
some orange zest

In a small microwave proof bowl, add the 1/4 cup Scotch and sprinkle the Knox over the liquid. Let stand one minute. Microcwave for 2-3 minutes until hot. Remove from microwave and stir. Wait to 5 minutes until cool and add the 3/4 cup room temperature Scotch and stir until mixed.

Pour into a container and set in the freezer for 30 minutes.

I would have to say, they were truly bits of solid Scotch. The translucence of the shots was intriguing. Rodin liked them, and that's what counts.