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Tomato Salad

A gelatin-based tomato salad with pimentos, celery, and dressing served on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Tomato Salad

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Tomato Salad

six molds

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatin base

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for 2–3 minutes, stirring thoroughly.

  2. In a bowl, combine the tomato juice, sugar, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Mix in the lemon juice and heat the mixture to boiling.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the soaked gelatin until dissolved.

Mold and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into six molds and let it begin to congeal.

  2. Once it starts to set, mix in the shredded pimentos and diced celery.

  3. Serve on lettuce leaves, topped with a dab of salad dressing.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Celery + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

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

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

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 gel as it cools.
Tomato juice
Forms the main liquid and flavor base of the salad.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the tomato flavor and balances the sugar.
Pimentos
Add mild sweetness and color for contrast in the set gel.
Celery
Adds a crisp texture that contrasts with the soft gel.

The step that matters

Stir the soaked gelatin into the hot mixture until fully dissolved. Gelatin must be completely dissolved before setting; undissolved granules leave gritty or uneven patches and weak spots in the gel. Removing the pan from heat first helps prevent overheating the gelatin, which weakens its setting power.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (gelatin, sugar, pepper, lemon, celery, lettuce):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against gelatin, sugar, pepper, lemon, celery, lettuce. 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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