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Tomato Jelly

A savory tomato jelly set with gelatin, served with celery salad and mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 29,058 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Boil the soup stock, salt, sugar, tomatoes, ketchup, onion, garlic, and peppercorns together for 30 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft.

  2. Soften the gelatin in ½ cup of cold water, then stir it into the tomato mixture until dissolved.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate until set.

Mold and serve

  1. Mold the jelly in a ring shape.

  2. Fill the center with celery salad mixed with mayonnaise or a cooked dressing, surrounded by lettuce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Granulated gelatine
Sets the liquid as it cools, giving the jelly its firm, sliceable body.
Tomatoes
Provide the main flavor, color, and acidity, and add body to the liquid.
Strong soup stock
Adds savory depth so the jelly tastes like a seasoned dish, not plain tomato.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the tomatoes and rounds out the flavor.

The step that matters

Dissolving the gelatine fully. Gelatine sets as the mixture cools, so it must be stirred until completely dissolved before chilling. Undissolved granules leave specks and soft, weak patches, and the jelly may not hold its ring shape when unmolded.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, tomato, onion, garlic):

  1. Cuminbetter flavor fit
  2. Oreganobetter flavor fit
  3. Corianderbetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, tomato, onion, garlic. 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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