Grandma's 7-Up Orange Jell-O Salad Recipe - One Hundred Dollars a Month (2024)

Desserts, Recipes, Salads,

By Mavis Butterfield on July 8, 2015 - 16 Comments

Growing up, my grandmother served Jell-O with practically every meal. It didn’t matter if we were eating meatloaf or a turkey dinner, there would always be some sort of Jell-O concoction on the table. Her recipe for7-Up Orange Jell-O Salad is one of my favorites.

It’s perfect for picnics and potlucks. 🙂

Grandma’s 7-Up Orange Jell-O Salad Recipe

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Author: Mavis Butterfield

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Ingredients

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1 6 oz box orange Jello
2 cups boiling water
1 cup cold 7-Up
1 cup crushed pineapple (, drained)
1 cup canned mandarin oranges (, drained)
1 cup miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup shredded coconut {I use sweetened}

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Instructions

Pour orange Jell-o into a large glass or ceramic serving dish and set aside.
Bring water to a boil in a saucepan then carefully pour hot water over gelatin and stir until it is all dissolved. Add 1 cup cold 7-Up. Stir well. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until partially set. Add crushed pineapple, mandarin oranges, marshmallows and shredded coconut, stir well and then refrigerate until set.

Comments

Em says
July 8, 2015 at 6:47 pm
I will try this! My grandmother made a jello salad with cherries and whipped cream. I think there were pecans. I need to ask my aunt for that recipe. 🙂
Reply
Nancy C. says
July 8, 2015 at 7:59 pm
My grandma loved making jello parfaits…orange, yellow, green, or any color layered with whip cream. She even had parfait glasses and special parfait spoons! She also loved topping jello with sugar and Coffee Rich or cream…..ewww!
The only jello we eat is a Thanksgiving: dark cherry jello mixed with crushed pineapple, and, my favorite, a can of cherry pie filling!
Reply
Kayla says
July 8, 2015 at 8:04 pm
Mavis, I am confused by the very first sentence. You said you grandma served breakfast with every meal and then started talking about Jello. Ummm… Is Jello considered breakfast? I’m not judging 🙂
Reply
- AmyWW says
  July 9, 2015 at 5:07 am
  I wondered about this too. I have never had Jello for breakfast. I wondered if she means that her grandma served Jello at practically every meal, even breakfast?
  Reply
  - Mavis Butterfield says
    July 9, 2015 at 10:26 am
    It was a typo.. Grandma did not serve Jell-O for breakfast. Ha! I fixed it.
    Reply
    See Also
    The recipe for my grandma's best mashed potatoes with heavy cream.
Ashley says
July 8, 2015 at 8:23 pm
The deli’s at my grocery stores sells something similar. It’s definitely a generation based recipe. I used to clean for an elderly man and he called it heavenly salad or something along those lines. So happy to have access to fresh ingredients for desserts these days….also so happy to have these recipes to make and reminisce over!
Reply
Lynne says
July 9, 2015 at 6:45 am
My mother made something she called ambrosia salad. One cup each of the mandarin oranges, crushed pineapple , little marshmallows and coconut, but instead of the jello, one cup each of mayonaisse and sour cream. Looks like a relative of this jello salad!
Reply
Ellen in Clackamas says
July 9, 2015 at 2:41 pm
Every holiday dinner we had some kind of Jello salad (and plain Jello any time). Mom made something similar to Lynne’s ambrosia salad but instead of the mayo she used pistacio pudding and cool whip. We called it “Mom’s green salad”. She also made a quasi vegetable salad with lime or lemon jello and put in shredded carrots and celery then smoothed a thin layer of mayo over the top (ugh)…never could figure that one out! I sure do want to try Mavis’ Grandma’s recipe though. Just have to remember the 7-Up!
Reply
Mary Margaret says
July 9, 2015 at 4:52 pm
Mavis I hail from LeRoy, NY. Jello was founded in our little town. We even have a Jello Museum that attracts 1000’s from all of the world to visit it. I would attach a pic but it won’t let me. 🙂 we love our Jell-o!
Reply
Debbie B. says
July 10, 2015 at 7:01 am
I am a Type II diabetic and was wondering if this recipe would work with Diet soda and sugar free jello. I always buy unsweetened fruits and could use unsweetened coconut and reduce the marshmallows to 3/4 or 1/2 cup.
This sounds so refreshingly cool and with the heat index here topping out at 100+ this week would be so nice!
Reply
- Mavis Butterfield says
  July 10, 2015 at 7:47 am
  I’ve never tried this recipe with diet soda or sugar free Jell-O but I would think it would be fine. 🙂
  Reply
- LaceFaerie says
  July 10, 2015 at 11:05 am
  Yes, you can make this sugar free. I used to adapt all sorts of jello desserts to Weight Watchers acceptable.
  Reply
LaceFaerie says
July 10, 2015 at 11:24 am
When money was very tight when I was growing up, my Mama made jello to serve with dinner every night. She used different flavores and fruits, but always included cottage cheese. (Sneaking in extra protein and calcium) If she started early enough she would make it layered. Such as cherry jello with cottage cheese and a can of fruit salad on the bottom, then after that was set, she’d make up a package of Dream Whip and add it to lemon jello. Only on special occasions did we get mini marshmallows in the mix. It was an inexpensive way to serve dessert to a family of seven!
I often make some sort of jello salads for our family BBQs, always a hit!
Reply
Cheryl says
July 10, 2015 at 2:55 pm
I make something similar, but use the fruit juice as part of the water. It gives the Jell-O a lot more flavor. Any type of pop can be used with Jell-O. Root beer, orange, lemon lime, and cherry cola are our favorites.
Reply
Heathere says
July 11, 2015 at 4:43 pm
I am from Utah and in Utah we love us some Jello!! It is the high light country outing!!
Reply

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Grandma's 7-Up Orange Jell-O Salad Recipe - One Hundred Dollars a Month (2024)

FAQs

What happened to Jello salads? ›

Jello salad fell out of fashion in the 1960s and 70s. The rise of Julia Child and the popularization of French cooking in the United States made the jello salad appear less elegant, and dieting trends eventually turned against sugary food like Jell-O.

View Details ›

Why does Jello salad exist? ›

This unique recipe became a popular dish due to its and a couple of socio-historical factors. After World War II, American women were both housewives and employees (via New-York Historical Society). The answer to their busy lifestyles was easy-prep goods like instant coffee, Spam, and instant gelatin.

Learn More Now ›

When were Jell-O meals popular? ›

While both sweet and savory gelatin became popular after World War II, Jell-O's golden years were in the 1950s, when the new American middle class created dishes such as jellied bouillon with frankfurters and strawberry cottage cheese mold. A “best of” Jell-O cookbook was published, and revised throughout the '60s.

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Why do hospitals always serve Jell-O? ›

Why do hospitals serve so much Jell-O? There are a few reasons: Jell-O is easy to swallow and digest, making it suitable for patients who have difficulty eating solid foods or have digestive issues.

Why is Jell-O not popular anymore? ›

Jell-O shifted to single-serve cups and more convenient options as competition for snacks and desserts grew. Kraft in the early 2000's shifted the focus of Jell-O's advertising away from kids and toward adults. It pitched sugar-free Jell-O, for example, as a treat for Atkins dieters.

Find Out More ›

Why wouldn t you want to use pineapple in a jello salad? ›

Bromolain in pineapple, papain in papaya and actinidin in kiwi are all enzymes capable of breaking down proteins, hence the warning that these fruits cannot be used in Jell-O. But canned fruits are fine because the pasteurization process they undergo destroys the proteolytic enzymes.

Get More Info Here ›

Do people still eat jello salad? ›

Plain Jell-O and sweet Jell-O salads are still widely consumed in the US, especially in the rural Midwest and the Deep South. Savory Jell-O salads do, however, remain popular in Utah and other heavily Mormon areas.

Show Me More ›

Did people actually like jello salads? ›

Yes, people ate them. Jellied terrines in aspic (gelatin flavored with meat stocks rather than sweetened like Jello) have a long history, for some reason, but around the middle of the 20th century, they had a brief popular vogue. Up to that point, they were a sort of prestige food.

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What state eats the most Jell-O? ›

Utah eats more Jell-O than any other state

The people in Utah love their Jell-O! The state has an entire holiday week dedicated to the jiggly treat, and it's even Utah's official state food.

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Why did people in the 50s eat so much Jell-O? ›

Jello's easy preparation and colorful appearance made it a convenient and attractive dessert option for busy homemakers. These factors, among others, contributed to the Jello craze in the 1950s, making it a staple dessert in many American households during that era.

Get More Info Here ›

Why did people put meat in Jell-O? ›

Popping previously cooked meat and vegetables into a Jell-O mold was a clever way to both preserve leftovers and repurpose them into new dishes. This frugal mindset was carried into World War II, when Jell-O salads became a way to stretch rations into an impressive meal.

Get More Info ›

Why was Jello salad a failed product? ›

The problem was, the new processed substitutes couldn't be sold on taste alone, as Shapiro makes clear in her book Something From the Oven: They just weren't as good as the real thing. But American palates had been adjusting to industrial flavors for the entire 20th century.

What was the downfall of Jell-O? ›

But in the decades after World War II ended, the problems that JELL-O had initially solved went away. Cheap food items did not impress a wealth-building American society, and wartime staples became repellant. In the 1970s, JELL-O languished as a children's snack and hospital dessert.