Where Does Gelatin Come From?

Have you ever sat back and thought, where does gelatin come from? How is it made? What good does it do in the food industry? Neither have I, until now! I’m sure gelatin does not interest many until they have gotten a chance to work with it. Let me tell you, this stuff is pretty weird.
The word gelatin comes from the Latin word gelatus, which means stiff or frozen. Which explains the texture of sheet (or leaf) gelatin. Sheet gelatin is sheets of solid, firm, plastic like, gelatin. There is also powdered gelatin sold in stores. Believe it or not, gelatin is a product made from animals. It is a protein that is created by boiling, skin, tendons, ligaments, and/or bones in water. These parts usually come from cows or pigs. Yeah that’s pretty gross.
Gelatin is used to testing firearms ammunition. I have seen television shows in the past that act out battle scenes, but instead of stabbing and shooting people they used ballistic gelatin. How convenient is that? Gelatin can also be used as a hair styling gel. When boiling water is added unflavored gelatin and cooled it creates a gel. Get ready to bring out the sheers and hair combs. This is clearly cheaper but the shelf life is not nearly as long. This gelatin gel only lasts for about a week. This amazing product can also be used to coat paintballs, and pill capsules. How cool is that? Gelatin can also be used in fine art printmaking. All you have to do is take a block of gelatin and just let those creative juices flow. You can paint the block and/or, put different textures on it, and then you print it. I am a total art geek so of course I had to try this! The gelatin blocks are really wobbly and smooth. You can roll different colors of paint onto the blocks, create different abstract designs, plop a feather on there and take it off just so it can look cool. There are so many things you can do with gelatin prints. After your design is made you will lay a sheet a paper over the block to see your design come to life. You can print your design more than once but the great thing about it is you can never create the same print twice. Gelatin can also be used as a binding agent in India ink. India ink can be used on gelatin prints, while I’m painting and eating jello. The gelatin cycle just goes on and