Throughout the ‘50s, ’60s, and even ’70s, gelatin-based novelties were the wobbling crown jewel of at-home American cuisine. Whether a sweet and jiggly fruit salad or a savory, colorful, veggie-laden aspic, hardly any single food item feels as synonymous with this bygone era. Perhaps because, among the various and sometimes questionable ingredients trapped within its gooey walls, it holds our collective history of adapting to new economic realities, getting our first taste of an industrialized food system, and the revamped expectations placed on women to create harmony and whimsy in the home.
Yet few know the woman who began this colossal culinary craze. A woman who made domesticity part of her personal brand long before the “trad wife” movement and who, until now, has largely been obscured from history.
The woman who quietly built a food empire
In 1908, Rose Knox secretly took control of her late husband’s struggling gelatin company, Knox Gelatine. Contrary to the popular opinion of the time that women didn’t make effective leaders, Knox quickly proved herself a shrewd businesswoman, adding a personal touch to everything she did: from how she interacted with customers to including recipes in her ads to researching the health benefits of her product.
Knox’s attention to detail paid off, because six years later, the company was thriving. The iconic orange box was a staple of most American kitchens. No party was complete without a savory “Tomato Relish Gelatine” or sweet fruit salad. Athletes and bodybuilders ate as much as they could to replenish their collagen. Knox was a bona fide household name. Only then did she make her role in the company’s success public.
It’s also worth noting that during her reign, she proved to be a pretty amazing boss as well, creating a five-day workweek for her workers and giving them paid vacation and unlimited sick leave, a rare luxury at the time. Even at the height of the Depression, the company didn’t lay off any of its workers.
She knew exactly what homemakers wanted
Knox would develop a carefully curated persona of a loving homemaker- savvy businesswoman hybrid that not only helped sell her product but also the idea that women naturally had all the skills to succeed in business, as they were the same skills needed to manage a household.
“Every woman, if forced, can do much more than she thinks she can,” she said.
Today, we have seen many iterations of this type of female-centered entrepreneurship: from Martha Stewart to the various home-making influencers of social media. But Knox was the predecessor to this. And, like many of her predecessors, the aspirational life she advertised to other women wasn’t as easy to achieve as she let on…even for herself.
Somehow, the person behind it all has been forgotten
Historian Rachel Greenfield recently wrote a biography titled “Rose Knox: How One Woman Mixed Kitchen and Boardroom to Remold an American Business,” which explores Knox’s innovative rise to national celebrity and the emotional toll it took to embody this “women can do it all” mantra.
It’s a timely book, considering that Knox received only a few brief obituaries following her death in 1950, and within a few years her name had largely faded from public memory. And as gelatin itself is finding a revival, it feels fitting that the woman who made it an iconic dish in the first place should return to the spotlight.
Here are a couple of Knox’s famous recipes, courtesy of Greenfield.
Tomato Relish Gelatine (1934)
1 envelope of Knox Gelatine
1/4 cups of cold water
2 cups canned or fresh tomatoes
1 tablespoon horseradish
½ cup of celery
1 tablespoon of onion juice
1 teaspoonful salt
1.2 cup cucumber, chopped
Put tomatoes through a strainer, add horseradish, salt, and onion juice (extracted by grating onion). Pour cold water into a bowl and sprinkle the gelatin on top of the water. Place bowl over boiling water and stir until gelatin is dissolved. Add to tomatoes and mix thoroughly. Cool, and when the mixture begins to thicken, add cucumber and celery, chopped very fine. Pour into individual molds that have been rinsed in cold water, and chill. When firm, unmould on lettuce and serve with a garnish of mayonnaise.
Fruit Salad Sweet (1901)
2 envelopes from a box of Knox Gelatine
6 oranges
1 can of pineapple
3 bananas
Sugar to taste
Wine (if desired)
Slice the bananas, cut the pineapple in small pieces, and remove the sections from the orange membrane. Drain off the juice, and in a part of this soak the gelatine five minutes and let stand over the teakettle until dissolved; add to the rest of the juice and pour over the fruit arranged in a salad-bowl. Set in a cool place or on ice until jellied, then sprinkle with grated coconut.
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