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Salad

Tomato Jelly Salad

A gelatin-based salad made with stewed tomato and optional cucumber or radish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Prepare the gelatin according to package instructions, using 2 cups of hot stewed tomato instead of boiling water.

  2. If you want a clear jelly, strain the hot stewed tomato before adding it to the gelatin.

Finish the salad

  1. When the gelatin is partly stiffened, mix in finely diced cucumber or radish if desired.

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 + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  2. Gelatin + cucumbertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together43 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Tomato + gelatintop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

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 jelly that holds its shape when chilled.
Stewed tomato
Provides the liquid base, flavor, and color of the jelly.

The step that matters

Adding the gelatin to the hot tomato. Gelatin must dissolve fully in the hot liquid before it is cooled. Undissolved granules leave specks and weak spots, so the jelly may set unevenly.

Swap the cucumber

The recipe marks cucumber as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, gelatin):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberthe original
  3. Lettucefits about as well
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, 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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