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Tomato and Cucumber Aspic

A chilled tomato gelatin with cucumber slices, served on lettuce with mayonnaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato and Cucumber Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato jelly

  1. Cook down the tomato with the parsley until smooth.

  2. Strain the mixture, measure it, and set it with gelatin (1 tablespoon per ½ cup of liquid).

Fill the mold

  1. Rub a mold with a little oil and place thin cucumber slices inside.

  2. Once the tomato jelly is cold, slowly pour it into the mold.

  3. Alternatively, stick the cucumber slices to the mold with a little dissolved gelatin.

Turn out and serve

  1. When firm, turn out onto lettuce and arrange overlapping cucumber slices around the edge.

  2. Serve with stiff mayonnaise.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,409 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + cucumbertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomato
Forms the flavourful liquid base that the gelatin sets into a firm jelly.
Gelatin
Sets the strained tomato liquid into a sliceable, wobbly jelly.
Cucumber
Adds cool, crisp texture and fresh flavour against the soft jelly.
Oil
Coats the mold so the set aspic releases cleanly when turned out.
Parsley
Adds a fresh, herbal aroma to the cooked tomato.
Stiff mayonnaise
Contributes richness and fat that contrasts with the sharp tomato jelly.

The step that matters

Pour the tomato jelly only when it is cold. Hot liquid can melt the gelatin set on the cucumber slices and shift them out of place. Pouring slowly from cold liquid keeps the slices where you arranged them and avoids air pockets.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, gelatin, cucumber, lettuce):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, gelatin, cucumber, lettuce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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