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Dessert

Tomato Jelly

A tomato gelatin set in a ring mold, filled with celery salad and surrounded by lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Boil the soup stock, tomatoes, onion, clove, peppercorns, salt, sugar, and catsup 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. Mold the mixture in a ring mold for a decorative effect.

Serve

  1. Fill the center with celery salad mixed with mayonnaise or a cooked dressing, and surround it with 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

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

Clove and sugar 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

Gelatin
Sets the tomato liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly that holds its mold shape.
Tomatoes
Provide the main body, acidity and tomato flavour of the jelly.
Soup stock
Adds savoury depth and body to the tomato base.
Catsup
Adds extra tomato flavour, sweetness and tang to the base.

The step that matters

Dissolving the gelatin. Gelatin must be fully softened in cold water and dissolved into the hot mixture; if it is left undissolved or the mixture is too hot when added, it will set unevenly or lose setting power.

Swap the onion

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

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

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