Halloween Food Hacks: How to Make Bloody Jello Worms the Right Way

The interwebs is a great source of information, but sometimes said information is not always legit. That can be frustrating when it comes to making fun food, costumes, and arts and crafts for Halloween, like this bowl of "bloody" gummy worms.

Fortunately, Corinne vs. Pin from Threadbanger has done the research for you. She tested popular Pinterest gummy worm recipes and found which techniques worked, which didn't, and which recipe gets real results.

Method #1: Fail

Unsurprisingly, she found that one of the most popular techniques—packing a tall cylinder with bendy drinking straws (you have to use bendy ones to get the realistic-looking rings), pouring in liquid Jell-O, then using water to loosen the straws once the gelatin had set—was total BS. She makes a great point that adding more water to solidified Jell-O will just turn it into liquid again.

In fact, the best method she discovered for getting the "worms" out of the mold was to grasp the bundle of straws and pull it free from the container.

She then used a rolling pin and, in her words, "lots of pressure" to get the little suckers to come out of the straws intact. A sheet of parchment paper and wiping down the straws helped them emerge, but they still fell apart pretty quickly.

Method #2: Fail

She also tested another popular method—submerging straws into a shallow dish of liquid Jell-O—and found that that doesn't really work, either. The straws all float and trying to get them to stay under isn't really workable.

Method #3: Success!

After more research, Corinne discovered what she believes to be the original recipe, available on Instructables. This version uses two packages of raspberry Jell-O, a carton of whipping cream to create the two-toned effect, four envelopes of unflavored gelatin to make the worms very solid, and a clean, empty carton to hold your straws and gelatin mixture.