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Tomato Jelly Salad

A tomato jelly served on lettuce with mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,189 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. In a pot, stew the tomatoes with cinnamon, cloves, salt, onion, sugar, vinegar, and cayenne until soft.

  2. Pass the mixture through a sieve.

  3. While hot, pour the mixture over the gelatin soaked in cold water. Stir well and pour into a mold.

  4. Set the mold on ice until firm.

Serve

  1. Serve on crisp lettuce leaves 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together20,633 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 body, moisture and tart flavor of the jelly.
Knox gelatin
Sets the tomato liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the tomato flavor and balances the sugar.
Onion
Adds savory depth to the stewed tomato base.

The step that matters

Pour the hot mixture over the softened gelatin. Gelatin must dissolve fully in the hot tomato liquid before setting; stirring well ensures an even distribution so the jelly sets uniformly rather than in patches.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Cucumberbetter flavor fit
  3. Mustardbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cinnamon, clove, sugar, vinegar, pepper, gelatin. 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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