This was really fascinating. Do you think the popularity of the pineapple as you've highlighted could be due to it being a luxury item or a 'showstopper' type addition, as was the case here in Britain a while back?
Absolutely. Recipes including it are often called "Exotic" or "Tropical" something. It's the natural successor to the time when they were so expensive that people would buy them for decoration and not to eat. I think the brightly colored Jell-O is precisely the same phenomenon -- it was previously the purview of people who had servants that could spend hours making aspic. Having it affordable and in a box or a can, almost instant? Sure thing.
This was really fascinating. Do you think the popularity of the pineapple as you've highlighted could be due to it being a luxury item or a 'showstopper' type addition, as was the case here in Britain a while back?
Absolutely. Recipes including it are often called "Exotic" or "Tropical" something. It's the natural successor to the time when they were so expensive that people would buy them for decoration and not to eat. I think the brightly colored Jell-O is precisely the same phenomenon -- it was previously the purview of people who had servants that could spend hours making aspic. Having it affordable and in a box or a can, almost instant? Sure thing.