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Salad

Tomato Jelly Salad with Vegetables

A salad of tomato jelly set in cucumber and string bean molds, served on lettuce with mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,713 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly Salad with Vegetables

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato jelly

  1. Cook the tomatoes with bay leaf, parsley, onion, peppercorns, and clove for 8 minutes.

  2. Remove the vegetables and strain the tomato through a sieve to yield ¼ cup.

  3. Soak the gelatin in cold water, then add it to the tomato along with salt and vinegar.

Mold and serve

  1. Line an individual mold with cucumber and string beans, then pour in the tomato mixture.

  2. Chill the mold, then remove the jelly and arrange it on a lettuce leaf.

  3. Garnish with mayonnaise dressing.

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. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,713 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,405 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together602 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsley + cucumbertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main flavour and the liquid that sets into the jelly.
Granulated gelatin
Sets the tomato liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly when chilled.
Cucumber
Adds a crisp texture and decorative shape to the mold.

The step that matters

Soak the gelatin in cold water before adding it to the tomato. Gelatin must hydrate in cold liquid first so it dissolves evenly; added dry or to uneven clumps, it can leave lumps or weak set in the jelly.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, parsley, onion, gelatin, vinegar, cucumber, beans):

  1. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  2. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  3. Capersbetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, parsley, onion, gelatin, vinegar, cucumber, beans. 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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