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Tomato Jelly

A chilled tomato gelatin made with stewed tomatoes, sugar, salt, pepper, celery salt, onion, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the jelly

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in cold water.

  2. Add the stewed tomatoes and season with sugar, salt, pepper, celery salt, and onion.

  3. Cook the mixture.

  4. Strain through a sieve while hot.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into cups or individual molds and refrigerate to harden.

  2. Turn each mold onto a lettuce leaf and serve 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 + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Stewed tomatoes
Provide the main flavor, body, and liquid of the jelly.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes with sweetness.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatin in cold water. Gelatin must be fully dissolved before the tomatoes are added, otherwise it will not disperse evenly and may set in lumps or fail to set firmly. Cold water lets it hydrate first before the mixture is heated.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

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