What Is Jell-O, Exactly?

Welcome to Burning Questions, The Takeout's video series in which we answer all your culinary quandaries and ponderings.

When you think of Jell-O, you might picture a midcentury American kitchen with a giant Jell-O bundt mold on the pastel countertops, or maybe you're transported back to a technicolor '80s childhood full of Jell-O jigglers. But the product we know as Jell-O actually came along a lot earlier, and the process of making gelatin stretches back hundreds of years earlier than that. In the video above, we provide a brief history of Jell-O and all the food science therein. For the full investigation, head here.