My jelly hell: ‘Slowly, the whole thing collapsed before me’

<p>Jelly is back in all its wobbly, Instagram-friendly glory. But does it always taste as impressive as it looks? And why is it so hard to get it to set rather than slump? This could get messy …</p><p>Jelly has a dowdy reputation, but it may well be the perfect food for the Instagram age: when it works, it’s incredibly photogenic, so who cares what it tastes like?</p><p>There can be no other explanation for recent claims that savoury jellies – the most lurid and off-putting of dishes, reminiscent of the worst culinary efforts of the 1950s – are suddenly fashionable. This resurgence comes, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/t-magazine/aspic-savory-jelly.html">according to the New York Times</a>, “at a time when chefs are feeling pressure to produce viral visuals and molecular gastronomy is old hat”.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/nov/12/my-jelly-hell-slowly-the-whole-thing-collapsed-before-me">Continue reading...</a>