Why it works: Tomato and lettuce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,655 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Tomato Jelly Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the jelly
Beat and strain the tomatoes.
Add salt and sugar to the strained tomatoes.
Soak the gelatine in cold water for 30 minutes, then add it to the tomato mixture.
Mold the mixture in cups and run a knife around the edges before removing.
Serve
Serve the jelly on lettuce leaves, cutting the leaves into ribbons if they are not crisp.
Garnish each serving with a spoonful of salad dressing.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,655 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Sugar + lettucetop 29% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,486 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Tomato + sugartop 33% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned 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 unmolded.
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main flavour and liquid base of the jelly.
- Sugar
- Balances the acidity of the tomatoes and rounds out their flavour.
The step that matters
Soaking the gelatine. Gelatine must be softened in cold water before it is added, so it dissolves evenly instead of forming lumps. Its setting power depends on it being fully dissolved in the warm or mixed liquid, so the jelly sets smoothly and firmly.
Flavor stand-ins for the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Sweet potatobetter flavor fit
- Cucumberbetter flavor fit
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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