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Dessert

Tomato Jelly

A gelatin dessert made from tomatoes, spices, and vinegar, set in a mold and served chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soften the gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes.

Make the jelly

  1. Cook the bay leaf, cloves, tomatoes, cayenne pepper, onion, celery, and sugar in a pot for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the softened gelatine and vinegar to the pot, stirring until dissolved.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve to remove seeds.

  4. Pour the mixture into a mold.

  5. Refrigerate until set.

Serve

  1. Turn out the jelly.

  2. Garnish with lettuce.

  3. Pour mayonnaise dressing over it.

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 + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly that holds its shape when turned out.
Tomatoes
Provide the main liquid, flavour and colour of the jelly.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the tomato flavour.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and depth to the cooked tomato base.

The step that matters

Dissolving the gelatine. Gelatine must be fully dissolved in the hot mixture, not left in lumps, or it will not set evenly. Softening it in cold water first lets it hydrate so it dissolves smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, tomato, pepper, celery, sugar, vinegar. 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 gelatin recipes

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