Skip to main content
Main

Tomato Aspic Salad

A chilled tomato aspic served on lettuce with mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Tomato Aspic Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the aspic

  1. Boil down the tomatoes, butter, bay leaf, clove, red pepper, and salt.

  2. Add mustard and sugar, then remove from heat and strain.

  3. Stir in wine, chicken stock, and gelatin, then return to the stove until dissolved.

Set and serve

  1. Strain into timbale molds and refrigerate until set.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Clove + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Tomato + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main flavor and body of the aspic as they break down and concentrate.
Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable gel as it cools.
Chicken stock
Forms the liquid base that the gelatin sets, adding savory depth.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes for a rounder flavor.

The step that matters

Dissolving the gelatin. Gelatin must fully dissolve in the warm liquid before molding; undissolved granules leave gritty spots and weak setting. Keep the mixture warm and stirred, but avoid a hard boil, which can weaken the gel's setting power.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, butter, pepper, mustard, sugar, wine, chicken):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, pepper, mustard, sugar, wine, chicken. 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 recipesChicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes