Cook Like It’s 1924: Winners!

Welcome to “Cooking Through the Decades,” a 10-week journey through the 20th century, where you can let our revamped retro recipes take you back through history. Cook along with us for a chance to win cookbooks and an America’s Test Kitchen apron autographed by Bridget Lancaster.

In the 1920s, Jell-O was innovative and elegant. Today, we whip it up as a kid-friendly treat. In this week’s challenge, our readers combined the two, blending novelty with family, with a handful of mini-marshmallows stirred in. Ambrosia Fruit Mold showed up on tables across America this week, in all its gelatinous glory. Some cooks had been hesitant about the merits of Jell-O, but were won over by the thrill of the jiggle (present company included) while others were simply revisiting a well-loved staple. All of our contestants would have surely been welcomed at a party by Scott and Zelda with this mold as a hostess gift.

Congratulations to Shannon Standridge and Jeff Greer, this week’s challenge winners! For their spirited cooking and inspiring photographs, they will receive a copy of Best Lost Suppers and an autographed apron. See their photos featured at the bottom of this post.

Hungry for more? Throw a dinner party worthy of West Egg with more recipes reminiscent of the Roaring Twenties. Skirt around prohibition laws with Home-Brewed Beer you don’t need a bathtub for. Retry the classic Caesar Salad, invented in 1924 in a restaurant in unlikely Tijuana. Maintain your figure for that drop-waist dress when you enjoy Reduced-Fat Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Celebrate the icebox, that modern wonder, with Lemon Icebox Cheesecake, and yes, it’s okay to have two desserts. These are extravagant times!

Prohibition is about to come to a close, but so must as well the carefree folly of this fanciful decade, for the Depression looms. Be sure to join us for 1930s cooking in this week’s challenge and more chances to win!

Dinner party photo courtesy of Powerhouse Museum.

Shannon Standridge

This was Shannon Strandridge's first Jell-O mold ever, but she sure captured the elegance of the 1920s in this beautiful rose mold.

Jeff Greer

Jeff Greer is ready to take a big spoonful out of his Ambrosia Fruit Mold. He stuck with his Jell-O through thick and thin and too-small molds and floating marshmallows in his mixing bowl, and the fruit mold pulled through for a successful dinner with mom and dad. Congratulations again to our winners!