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Dessert

Tomato Jelly

A preserved tomato jelly made with tomatoes, spices, gelatin, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly base

  1. Stew the tomatoes with the bay leaf, onion, spices, red pepper, and salt for 15 minutes.

  2. Soak the gelatine in cold water, then stir and dissolve it over heat.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve, letting the pulp through but not the seeds.

  4. Add vinegar and food coloring until bright red.

Mould and serve

  1. Mould in pretty designs and serve with mayonnaise colored green and chopped olives.

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 + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, colour and flavour of the jelly.
Gelatine
Sets the strained liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the tomato flavour and brightens the colour.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma to the tomato base as it stews.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatine fully. Gelatine only sets properly when it is completely dissolved and evenly mixed into the liquid. Undissolved grains leave soft spots or specks, so stir until no granules remain before adding it to the tomato mixture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, 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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