Name: Tomato Jelly
Ingredients: 1 pint strained tomatoes; 1 slice onion; 1 teaspoon salt; a stick of celery chopped; 2 bay leaves; salt; lemon juice

Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cover the box of gelatin with a cup of cold water and let soak for 1 hour.
Put the strained tomatoes, chopped celery, bay leaves, and onion into a saucepan.
Boil for a few minutes.
Add the gelatin and strain through a sieve.
Add 1 teaspoon salt and a tablespoon lemon juice.
Pour into small round molds and place in a cold location to harden.

Serve

Serve on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise dressing.
Peel the tomatoes without scalding.
Serve sliced or whole in any manner to suit the taste — plain, or with an onion sliced with them; on lettuce leaves or in a saucedish, with French dressing, any kind of mayonnaise or other dressing, with salt or sugar, with vinegar or without.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

86Calories

3 gProtein

1 gFat

20 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 6 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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.

Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,467 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,592 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin (in the method): Sets the strained tomato liquid into a firm jelly when chilled.
Strained tomatoes: Provide the main body, flavour and liquid of the jelly.
Celery: Adds a subtle aromatic vegetable flavour to the tomato base.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the tomato.