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
Ingredients
Directions
Make the tomato base
Stew the can of tomatoes with the sliced onion, salt, and pepper until reduced by half.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve, pressing the pulp through.
Set and serve
To the pulp, add the soaked gelatine, vinegar, and cayenne pepper.
Pour the mixture into a dish to cool, ensuring it is at least 1 inch deep.
Once firm, cut into squares and place on lettuce leaves.
Serve with mayonnaise 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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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,562 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + lettucetop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,037 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 flavour and body of the jelly once stewed and strained.
- Gelatine
- Sets the strained tomato pulp into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the tomato flavour and balances its sweetness.
The step that matters
Pour the mixture into a dish to cool, ensuring it is at least 1 inch deep.. Gelatine only sets when the mixture cools undisturbed and has enough depth to hold its shape. A shallow layer may set too thin to cut into clean squares.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, vinegar, lettuce):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Cucumberbetter flavor fit
- Mustardbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, vinegar, lettuce. 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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