Why it works: Tomato and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,667 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Tomato Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the juice
Break ripe tomatoes into pieces and stew them in just enough water to prevent burning.
Pour the mixture into a jelly bag and let the juice run through.
Make the jelly
Add 1 pound of sugar for each pound of juice.
Return the mixture to the stove and boil until it jellies.
Serve with roast meat.
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.
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Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,667 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ripe tomatoes
- Provide the juice and pectin-free body that the jelly is set from.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and helps it thicken and set as it boils.
The step that matters
Boil until it jellies. Boiling concentrates the juice and sugar until the mixture reaches the setting point. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff or darken it.
“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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