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Tomato Aspic

A gelatinous tomato mixture made with tomato pulp, gelatine, aspic, and meat glaze, seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Aspic

Ingredients

Directions

Make the aspic

  1. Combine tomato pulp, soaked gelatine, aspic, and meat glaze in a saucepan.

  2. Heat over medium until it boils, stirring constantly.

  3. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  4. Strain the mixture through a cloth or fine sieve.

Use

  1. Use as directed.

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

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

  2. Tomato + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,438 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomato pulp
Provides the main tomato flavour and liquid body of the aspic.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Meat glaze
Adds concentrated savoury depth and body to the tomato base.

The step that matters

Heating until it boils while stirring. Stirring keeps the gelatine evenly dispersed and prevents scorching on the pan bottom. Gelatine must fully dissolve, so the mixture should be heated thoroughly, but overheating can weaken its setting strength.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper. 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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