Skip to main content
Main

Jellied Tomatoes

A chilled tomato jelly served over lettuce, garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Jellied Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Combine the strained tomatoes, sugar, and finely chopped onion in a saucepan and boil for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the white pepper, paprika, and salt, then strain the mixture through a fine strainer.

  3. Soak the gelatin in 1 tablespoon of cold water, then add it to the hot tomato mixture.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into small cups that have been rinsed in cold water.

  2. Once firm, turn out the jellied tomatoes onto shredded lettuce.

  3. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with 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. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. White pepper + oniontop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Tomato + white peppertop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together226 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl butyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Tomato + gelatintop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Strained tomatoes
Provide the main body and flavour of the jelly.
Gelatin
Sets the tomato liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly when chilled.
Onion
Adds a savoury, aromatic background to the tomato base.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Adding the gelatin to the hot mixture. Gelatin must be fully softened in cold water first, then dissolved into the hot tomato mixture. Added undissolved or lumpy, it sets unevenly and leaves a grainy texture in the finished jelly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, onion, sugar, gelatin):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, sugar, gelatin. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes