LIfe Hack: Jello

 Ok, so it went down like this: the little guy wanted some Jello.  Now, he's not really all that good about asking for some things like treats (and to good about being a pest asking for other things, but that's a different story). If he thinks he can get it for himself he'll just growl and go for it most of the time.  Anyhow, even though he's watched me make the Jello at least three dozen times the whole two cups of boiling water, stir in the Jello and then add two cups of cold water just hasn't quite clicked in for him yet.  I arrived in the kitchen just in time to see the big box of Jello go into four cups of cold water.  He was stirring furiously (splashing Jello for 18 inches in all directions) when I interrupted his endeavor.

The old chem plant days kicked in by reflex.  Jello is great stuff, and it is in it's essence a super saturated solution kind of thing.  Two cups of water just will not hold the big box in solution unless it's right on boiling, and the Jello won't really go into solution even in four cups of cold water, most likely a fair amount of it will remain a fine particle suspended in the cold water.  Translation?  Soupy Jello flavored water at best.   The missing ingredient?  Enough heat to get the whole mess into solution so it could do the whole jelly-ing thing as the solution chilled down in the fridge.  

The experiment that amazingly worked?  Into the microwave it went for about three minutes.  The logic?  Water by itself is slow to heat in a microwave, but the tiny suspended Jello particles?  Maybe, just maybe they'd get hot fairly quickly, heat the water around them and finish going into solution.  At the three minute mark the tubber of Jello-juice was close the same temp as when the two cups of cold hit the two cups of hot.  I stirred like crazy with the whisp for about thirty seconds, put the lid on the whole mess and put it in the bottom of the fridge.  I told the kid, who had just returned to the kitchen to find out if he was really in that much trouble, we had one chance in twenty for it to turn into Jello by morning, and ran him out of the kitchen so his mom could cook some dinner.

He... is a lucky little fart.  Come dawn?  Perfectly set Jello.  Now, I fully and totally recommend following the instructions on the box, but, in a case of cold water duress?  Worth giving it a try.  Good luck.