Why it works: Celery and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,033 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓
Tomato Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomato juice
Boil the can of tomatoes in a porcelain saucepan for about 10 minutes until the raw taste is gone.
Mash the tomatoes through a colander and then through a sieve.
Set the tomato juice aside to cool.
Make the gelatine
Soak the gelatine in just enough water to wet it, then cover the gelatine.
Heat the gelatine in a cup placed in a pan of boiling water until melted.
Pour the melted gelatine through a sieve into the cooled tomato juice.
Season and mold
Season the mixture with onion juice, coarse sea salt, celery salt, red or white pepper, Tabasco sauce, and Worcestershire sauce to taste.
Mold the mixture in small round molds or one large mold.
Serve
Hollow out the tops of each mold to hold some dressing.
Serve the molded jelly on salad plates with lettuce leaves.
Add mayonnaise dressing around the base of the large jelly mold.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,033 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
-
Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,655 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,562 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main body, flavour and liquid base of the jelly.
- Gelatine
- Sets the tomato juice into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
The step that matters
Adding the melted gelatine to the cooled tomato juice. Gelatine must be fully melted but the juice cool enough, or the gelatine can clump or fail to distribute evenly and the jelly may set unevenly. Gelatine sets only when cooled below its setting point, so the mixture should be chilled to firm up properly.
Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, onion, celery, sauce, lettuce):
- Capersbetter flavor fit
- Tarragonbetter flavor fit
- Garlicbetter flavor fit
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, celery, sauce, lettuce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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