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Dessert

Jellied Tomatoes

A chilled tomato dessert with a creamy cheese and aspic jelly mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 456 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Jellied Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese cream

  1. Whip the heavy cream until stiff, then season with celery, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add the grated cheese and gradually whisk in the cooled aspic jelly flavored with tarragon vinegar.

  3. Continue whisking until the mixture begins to stiffen.

Prepare and fill the tomatoes

  1. Peel and halve the small round tomatoes, removing the seeds and draining them briefly.

  2. Fill each tomato half with the cheese mixture and place on a cheese biscuit.

Garnish and serve

  1. Pipe additional cheese cream around the edge and garnish with cress, placing a small bunch in the center.

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. Celery + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Tarragon + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together391 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Heavy cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it gives the filling its light, airy body.
Grated cheese
Adds richness and flavor, and helps the filling hold its shape as it sets.
Aspic jelly
Gelatin-based setting agent that firms the cream so it holds its shape when chilled.
Small round tomatoes
Serve as the edible cup, adding fresh acidity and moisture against the rich filling.

The step that matters

Whisk the aspic in gradually until the mixture begins to stiffen. Cooled aspic must be added slowly so it blends evenly into the cream. If it is too warm or added all at once, it can deflate the whipped cream or set in streaks. Stopping once the mixture just begins to stiffen keeps it light and spreadable.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, celery, pepper, cheese, tarragon, vinegar, biscuit):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, celery, pepper, cheese, tarragon, vinegar, biscuit. 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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