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Tomato Jelly Salad

A gelatin-based salad made with tomatoes, onions, celery, and seasonings, served chilled on lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato mixture

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in cold water.

  2. Boil the gelatin mixture with the condensed tomatoes, water, onion, celery, and salt for fifteen minutes.

  3. Season with cayenne pepper, sage, and thyme if desired.

  4. Remove from heat, add vinegar and softened gelatin, then strain.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into molds and refrigerate until firm.

  2. If desired, add chopped celery or green peas when the mixture begins to set.

  3. Once set, remove from molds and serve on crisp lettuce leaves with mayonnaise or boiled 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.

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. Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 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 liquid into a firm, sliceable mold with a wobbly texture.
Condensed tomatoes
Provides the main tomato flavour and body for the salad.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the tomato flavour and balances richness.
Onion
Contributes savoury, aromatic flavour to the boiled tomato base.

The step that matters

Add the softened gelatin off the heat and strain. Gelatin loses its setting power if boiled for long, so it should be stirred in after removing the pan from heat. Straining removes lumps and bits so the set is smooth.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (gelatin, tomato, onion, pepper, sage, thyme, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against gelatin, tomato, onion, pepper, sage, thyme, 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.

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