Why it works: Thyme and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,108 recipes mention both. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Tomato Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Boil the tomatoes, thyme, cloves, salt, bay leaf, sugar, onion, and pepper until the tomatoes are soft.
Add the soaked gelatin and stir until dissolved.
Strain the mixture.
Set and serve
Pour it into a ring-shaped mold and set the mold.
Fill the center with celery cut into pieces and mixed with mayonnaise.
Garnish the outside of the ring with shredded lettuce.
Serve.
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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Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,108 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together11,585 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,370 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together11,171 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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 and flavor of the jelly once cooked and strained.
- Gelatine
- Sets the strained tomato liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
- Sugar
- Balances the acidity of the tomatoes and rounds out their flavor.
The step that matters
Stir until dissolved. Gelatine must fully dissolve into the hot liquid, or it will not set evenly and may leave soft or grainy patches in the jelly.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, thyme, clove, sugar, pepper):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Okrabetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, thyme, clove, sugar, pepper. 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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