Before Jell-O, gelatin was a luxury dish for the elite, made by boiling animal bones in a laborious process. 

That changed in 1897 when Pearle Wait added fruit flavors to powdered gelatin and called it Jell-O—thanks to a name from his wife, May. It wasn’t an instant hit, but clever marketing helped it jiggle into American kitchens.

Utah embraced Jell-O so enthusiastically that it became the state’s official snack in 2001, earning the region the nickname “the Jell-O Belt.”