Why it works: Tomato and basil are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,979 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Fifty Lunches
Ingredients
Directions
Make the tomato gelatin
Cook the tomatoes over low heat, stirring to prevent sticking, and season with salt, pepper, mace, and basil.
Once the tomatoes are cooked to a pulp, mix in the soaked gelatin and stir until dissolved.
Pass the mixture through a fine sieve into a dish, spreading it to a depth of ¼ inch.
Set and cut
Set the dish over ice until firm, then cut out rounds with a 1½-inch cutter.
Melt any leftover pieces and set the liquid again, cutting out smaller rounds.
Top and serve
Top each larger round with a little anchovy cream and a tomato button.
Arrange the rounds on a flat dish with watercress as a garnish and serve.
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.
-
Tomato + basiltop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,979 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Pepper + basiltop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,294 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
-
Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,628 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
-
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Basil + watercresstop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together46 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main flavour and pulp that forms the body of the set dish.
- Gelatin
- Sets the tomato pulp into a firm, sliceable gel that holds its cut shape.
The step that matters
Dissolving the gelatin fully before setting. Gelatin must be completely dissolved into the warm tomato pulp and then chilled; undissolved grains or insufficient chilling leave gritty spots or a soft gel that will not hold clean cut rounds.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, gelatin, pepper, basil, anchovy, cream, watercress):
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, gelatin, pepper, basil, anchovy, cream, watercress. 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
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.