Skip to main content
Dessert

Tomato Jelly

A tomato preserve made with gelatin, tomatoes, spices, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,901 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water until soft.

  2. Cook the tomatoes and seasoning (except salt) for twenty minutes.

Set the jelly

  1. Strain and add salt.

  2. Pour the hot liquid over the softened gelatin.

  3. Stir until it is dissolved.

  4. Pour into custard cups which have been wet with cold water.

Serve

  1. Serve very cold on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise dressing.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

102Calories
1 gProtein
0 gFat
24 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Salt1 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 Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog]. 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.

  1. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Sugar + oniontop 36% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,747 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 into a firm jelly as it cools.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the tomatoes.
Cloves
Adds a warm, spiced aroma to the tomato liquid.

The step that matters

Stir until the gelatin is fully dissolved. Gelatin only sets when it dissolves completely in the hot liquid. Undissolved granules leave weak or grainy patches in the finished jelly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove. 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.

More tomato jelly recipes

Salad 39 See all 108 →

You might also like

Clove CakeClove Cake53 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes