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Jellied Tomatoes

Cheese‑filled tomatoes topped with a creamy aspic mixture, served on biscuits and garnished with cress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,399 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Jellied Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Whip the heavy cream until stiff, then season with salt and pepper.

  2. Add the grated cheese and whisk in the aspic jelly gradually until the mixture begins to stiffen.

Assemble and garnish

  1. Peel and halve the small tomatoes, removing the seeds and draining them.

  2. Fill each tomato half with the cheese mixture and place on a cheese biscuit.

  3. Pipe additional cheese cream around the edge of each filled tomato.

  4. Garnish with cress and place a small bunch in the center of the filled tomatoes.

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. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tarragon + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together391 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Tarragon + biscuittop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together18 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

Heavy cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it gives the filling its light, airy body.
Grated cheese
Adds richness and flavor, and thickens the cream when combined with the aspic.
Aspic jelly
Gelatin-based setting agent that firms the filling so it holds its shape when chilled.
Small round tomatoes
Provide the fresh, acidic base that holds the cheese filling.

The step that matters

Whisking the aspic into the cheese cream. The aspic must be cool and added gradually so it thickens the mixture without melting the whipped cream. If it is too warm or added all at once, the cream deflates and the filling will not stiffen properly.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, pepper, cheese, tarragon, vinegar, biscuit):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, pepper, cheese, tarragon, vinegar, biscuit. 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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