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Salad

Tomato Jelly Salad

A chilled tomato jelly served on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,655 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in ½ cup of cold water for 15 minutes.

  2. In a bowl, combine the stewed tomatoes, salt, and powdered sugar.

  3. Add the soaked gelatine to the tomato mixture and stir well.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into small cups and chill until set.

  2. Run a knife around the inside of the moulds to release the jelly.

  3. Place the jelly on lettuce leaves and garnish with mayonnaise 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. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,655 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + lettucetop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Gelatine
Sets the tomato liquid into a firm jelly that holds its shape when unmoulded.
Stewed and strained tomatoes
Provides the main flavour and liquid base of the jelly.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the acidity of the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Soak the gelatine before adding it. Gelatine must first hydrate in cold water so it dissolves evenly into the tomato mixture. Added dry or unevenly, it can leave lumps or weak patches, and the jelly may not set firmly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lettuce. 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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