The Luscious Old-School Jell-O Mousse That Only Requires 2 Ingredients

Much has been said about the horrors of Jell-O salad, a dessert Ina Garten urges you not to bring to dinner parties. One of its predecessors, however, started out as something even more unappetizing. In the 17th century, flummery consisted of oatmeal boiled into a jelly. This bland gruel was typically served to prison inmates, and its flavorless character led to the word being adopted to mean insincere politeness or flattery. Over the years, however, the dish evolved into a sweet, soft dessert, and in the post-WWII era, came to incorporate flavored gelatin. This ingredient, once set, is beaten together with evaporated milk. Since evaporated milk isn't sweetened, it's not the kind of thing you'd want to eat straight from the can, like condensed milk. In this dessert, though, the lack of sugar isn't an issue, since the gelatin component takes care of sweetening.

In recent years, flummery seems to have been experiencing somewhat of a revival, at least in Commonwealth countries. (It may be more widely known in the U.K. and Australia than in the United States.) That's likely due to the fact that it can make for an economical dessert if you stick to the basic recipe. At Aldi, a can of Baker's Corner evaporated milk costs just $1.09, as does a packet of Baker's Corner gelatin dessert mix. Even if you're a big spender and opt to pay $1.59 for name-brand Jell-O and $3.29 for Simple Truth Organic Evaporated Milk at Kroger, you're still looking at dessert for under five bucks.

Flummery can, of course, include other ingredients than fruit-flavored gelatin and evaporated milk. If you want to go old-school, one 18th-century recipe calls for cream, almonds, and calf's foot jelly, which is the same meaty ingredient that appears in an 1827 lemonade recipe. If you prefer something more vegetarian-friendly, a traditional Scottish version recalls the original recipe for flummery, since it's made with oatmeal, although it also includes orange juice, cream, honey, sugar, and even a splash of whiskey. A less traditional Australian recipe makes use of orange gelatin powder, but also eschews evaporated milk for cream and uses gin as a flavoring.

A less alcoholic but also quite easy way to elevate your flummery would be to add some fruit to the mix. (Just like, dare we say it, Jell-O salad?) Crushed pineapple and canned mandarin oranges would be in keeping with the dessert's retro nature, but if you prefer to use fresh fruit, berries, bananas, and stone fruits like peaches and plums are all soft enough to work well in the dish. You can either puree the fruit and beat it into the mix or cut it into chunks for a little texture. Flummery can also be topped with whipped cream and even a sprinkling of chocolate, if you really want to dress things up.