Jello/Jelly

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It's my friends hen do later on this month and I saw a recipe for Strawberry Magarita Jello shots that I thought would be good. My sister is organising the whole thing so I showed her it and it now looks like I've volunteered myself to make them!

The thing is, the recipe calls for strawberry jello. Is that just the same as jelly? Or is it different?

The recipe is below if it helps!

STRAWBERRY MARGARITA JELL-O SHOOTERS

Always "SHARE" with friends and family...LET'S EAT!

Ingredients:
24-30 Strawberries

MARGARITA MIX
1 box Strawberry Jell-O
8 ounces tequila
6 ounce Cointreau (orange flavored liquor)
Salt for garnish

Directions:
STRAWBERRY PREP:
Cut the bottoms of the strawberry flat to get them to stand upright. When you do so, make sure that you do not cut off so much that there is a hole at the bottom.

Use a huller or apple corer to empty out the strawberry.
Once the strawberries have been emptied, use a towel to pat the outside of the strawberries dry.
Check each strawberry and make sure there is not a hole in the bottom before you start filling.

MARGARITA MIX
Boil one cup of hot water in a saucepan, then add in Jell-o powder and whisk until powder is completely dissolved, about 2 minutes. Set aside. Measure out 1/4 cup of cold water and set aside.

Combine tequila and Cointreau, in cocktail shaker filled with ice. Add liquor mixture to cold water and stir to combine. Then add cold liquor mixture to hot Jell-o mixture and stir to combine.

Pour final Jell-o mix into strawberries and chill overnight. Dip your finger in water or use a moistened brush to wet the edge of the strawberries, dip and rotate the strawberries in salt to rim.

Garnish with cut lime triangles to finish.

 

OK, coz I know you jam gets called jelly in the US.....unless you guys have wobbly sandwiches!

 

I'd make sure about that before I started in because I think the two different things would have dramatically different results.

 

Well I can get gelatin, I think that should do it

 

Yes, Americans have this crazy habit of making up new words for things even though they claim to speak English. They say Jello when they really mean Jelly (the dessert you have with ice cream) and say Jelly when they really mean Jam (the fruity spread you put on toast).

 

Technically it is Jell-O which is the brand name that dominates the market. That is why we call it that.
Be sure to use this for your party or you will be very disappointed.

 

OK, well what would the English equivalent be?

 

Well I don't think the brand name matters as long as you use a gelatin product and make it to its specifications using liquid such as water, juice, and hard liquor to the right proportions. I've made lots of different combinations of those cocktail desserts with gelatin and with jello mix as well. As long as they set, they almost always work. It's good to put a little less liquid than is required. You can play with the alcohol ratio and make it as strong or as weak as you like.

 

Sorry about that. I didn't mean that you needed the name brand just that you wanted to make sure you had the gelatin equivalent as opposed to what we would call jelly.

 

This is probably a digression, but I should note that in the US, jam is NOT jelly. Yes, it is spread on bread, but there are actually 4 (maybe more?) products that are similar that we spread on bread:

Preserves: fruit with pectin -- and there are often huge chunks of fruit that are not as spreadable as the rest of the spread, so it's pretty uneven.

Jam: fruit with pectin, but smashed up more -- so it's pretty even, but you do have actual fruit.

Jelly: fruit juice with pectin -- very, very thin and even because there's no actual fruit, just the juice. It's also got a very different texture.

Marmalade: To be honest, I'm not really sure what marmalade is. I just know that it's almost always orange (at least in the US) and is different from preserves, jam, and jelly. Since I don't like orange much, I usually don't have it.

I know this because I like jam and preserves but don't much care for jelly. The consistency bothers me -- too much like Jell-O, strangely enough.

 

I'm now just as confused as I was to start with!

In the UK, jelly is the wobbly stuff that you have as a dessert and jam is smashed up fruit that you'd put in a sandwich

 

Marmalade is made from citrus fruits.

 

So I can use jelly?

 

Yes, use the wobbly dessert that comes in crystal form.

I just looked at the ingredients on my jar of raspberry jam and see that it consistents of "raspberries" and "sugar".

 

Who knew this topic could cause such turmoil? It should probably go to the Alleys.

 

We get all sorts of flavours of jelly so I'll get some strawberry.

Next question is....Sugar-free or not?

(Gaear, you could be right!)