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Tomato Salad

A gelatin-based salad made with tomatoes, onion, spices, and a celery or cabbage salad, served with cream dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Tomato Salad

Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatin

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water.

  2. Cook the tomatoes, onion, bay leaf, cloves, salt, sugar, pepper, and celery salt for 10 minutes.

  3. Add the soaked gelatin and stir until dissolved.

  4. Strain the mixture into a mold or small cups.

Serve

  1. Fill the center with chopped celery or cabbage salad.

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

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

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the tomato liquid into a firm, sliceable mold.
Tomatoes
Provide the main flavor and liquid base of the salad.
Onion
Adds savory aroma to the tomato base as it cooks.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatin fully before straining. Gelatin only sets when it is completely dissolved and evenly mixed into the hot liquid. Undissolved granules leave soft or grainy spots, and the mixture must cool enough to set without separating.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, clove, sugar, pepper, celery, cream):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, clove, sugar, pepper, celery, cream. 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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