Why it works: Tomato and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,592 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Tomato Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the juice
Cut the tomatoes into pieces and boil them with a small piece of lemon until soft.
Place the mixture in a cheesecloth bag and drain without squeezing.
Make the jelly
For every 1 pint of tomato juice, add ½ pint of sugar and continue according to general instructions.
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.
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Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,592 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,667 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Tomatoes
- Provide the juice that sets into the jelly, carrying most of the flavour and liquid.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm by binding water.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and supports the set.
The step that matters
Draining without squeezing. Pressing the cheesecloth forces cloudy solids through the bag, which makes the jelly murky. Letting gravity do the work yields a clear, bright juice.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Kalefits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar. 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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