Thousand Island Salmon Spread, 1977 – A Mid-Century Gelatin Test

After yapping about the Jell-O Museum last week, I thought it was only fair to show you a test gelatin mold this week. So, ta-da!

This is Thousand Island Salmon Spread!

From The Knox Gelatine Cookbook, 1977

Tested Recipe!

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2 envelopes unflavored gelatin ½ cup cold water 1 cup boiling water 16 oz sour cream ¾ cup Thousand Island Dressing 1 tbsp lemon juice 16 oz salmon, drained and flaked 1 tsp dill weed

1 In a medium bowl, mix unflavored gelatin with 1/2 cup cold water. Add 1 cup boiling water and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved. Add sour cream, dressing, lemon juice, salmon and dill weed. Turn into a 5 1/2 cup mold and chill until firm, about 4 hours. (Or 2 hours in the freezer, if you are in a hurry.)

Ingredients 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin ½ cup cold water 1 cup boiling water 16 oz sour cream ¾ cup Thousand Island Dressing 1 tbsp lemon juice 16 oz salmon, drained and flaked 1 tsp dill weed Directions 1 In a medium bowl, mix unflavored gelatin with 1/2 cup cold water. Add 1 cup boiling water and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved. Add sour cream, dressing, lemon juice, salmon and dill weed. Turn into a 5 1/2 cup mold and chill until firm, about 4 hours. (Or 2 hours in the freezer, if you are in a hurry.) Thousand Island Salmon Spread IngredientsDirections

So, this recipe was made as part of my girls’ party a few months ago. This was one of Carolyn’s contributions, and of course, it was fish-shaped. If you remember, Carolyn is my insane friend behind the Aspic Aquarium. So as soon as she saw fish and gelatin, she was on it.

This also gave me a chance to introduce Carolyn to the fun world of skin-on bone-in canned salmon, which everyone recoiled hard from as soon as she opened the can. And then she spend a long time picking out bones and skin.

And before you get on my case about not eating salmon skin and bones (because you can, and you should if you want extra calcium), this was a spread, and so we wanted it to be smooth.

Well, smooth-ish.

There we go. Creamy, goopy and slightly pink. Now we are getting somewhere.

Oh, and just a quick note: We halved the recipe because we were making so many other things. And because only half would fit into my excellent fish mold.

Meet Thousand Island Fish Guy.

I was a little nervous about unmolding this one, because we had only let it set for about 2 hours in the freezer while we went out to lunch. The other gelatin in the lower right of the photo had been jelling all night.

But it worked! This guy set up fast. Probably thanks to the oodles of sour cream.

And then it was decided that poor Guy needed some olive eyes.

Because nothing says “I’m a mid-century recipe” more than some dopey olive eyes.

Well, the parsley helps, too.

See that little hand digging in? That was Alex’s little hand. We could not keep her away from this thing.

But, most importantly, could we keep her father away? Or, more accurately, could we coax him to draw near enough to that we could smash a cracker of Thousand Island Salmon Spread into his face?

“So, good?”

“Acutally, yeah. It’s really good. It tastes like tuna salad that has pickles in it.”

“Now it all makes sense. That is Alex’s favorite.”

The Verdict: Good

From The Tasting Notes –

This is another one to add to your mid-century cooking file of recipes that look hilarious but that your guests will actually enjoy eating. Quite a bit of Thousand Island Fish Guy With The Olive Eye was consumed at the party. And then I saved a chunk for Alex to eat the next day and she demolished it. It really did just taste like tuna salad. It was nice and creamy and had a tang to it. The dill added a good flavor as well. I thought this would have a weird texture or be too bland, but it was neither of those things. And it didn’t even taste like salad dressing. As an added bonus, we made the recipe at the last minute, stuck it in the freezer and went out for lunch. When we came back 2 hours later it was completely set without being frozen. So, this is also a good recipe for events you put off preparing for until the last minute.

Way to go, Thousand Island Fish Guy!