Plural of jelly; semisolid, translucent substances made by boiling bones or gelatin, often used in cooking or as spreads.
From Old French 'gelee,' meaning frozen, from Latin 'gelata' (gelatin, from 'gelare' meaning to freeze). Medieval cooks discovered that animal collagen became jelly-like when cooled.
Victorian dinner tables were obsessed with jellies shaped into elaborate molds—they were expensive, required hours of boiling bones, and showed off wealth, so they became the ultimate status food.
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