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Tomato Aspic Salad

A chilled tomato aspic with eggs, ham, and peanuts served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and peanut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 315 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Aspic Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the aspic

  1. Boil the tomatoes until soft enough to mash through a wire strainer.

  2. Add water to the strained tomatoes and heat to dissolve the gelatin.

  3. Season the mixture with salt and paprika.

  4. When the gelatin begins to set, mix in the boiled eggs, ham, and peanuts.

Serve

  1. To serve, unmold the aspic onto lettuce leaves and accompany with mayonnaise.

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. Tomato + peanuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together315 recipes

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

  2. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Tomato + hamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together348 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Egg + gelatintop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Egg + peanuttop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 aspic that holds its shape when unmolded.
Tomatoes
Provide the main flavour, acidity and colour, and the body once strained into a smooth base.
Boiled eggs
Add richness and soft texture that contrasts with the firm, set aspic.
Boiled ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour and a meaty bite throughout the aspic.
Peanuts
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavour against the soft set base.

The step that matters

Stirring in the eggs, ham, and peanuts as the gelatin begins to set. If the gelatin is still fully liquid, the solids sink and settle at the bottom. If it has set too firm, they will not distribute evenly. Timing keeps them suspended throughout the aspic.

Swap the peanut

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Peasfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, egg, ham, 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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