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Tomato Jelly

A gelatin set tomato-based preserve made with tomatoes, spices, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,467 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the tomatoes

  1. Combine tomatoes, cloves, bay leaf, onion, celery, salt, and cayenne in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer for 15 minutes, then strain the mixture.

Make the jelly

  1. In another saucepan, soak gelatin in cold water for 30 minutes, then stir until dissolved.

  2. Add the strained tomato mixture to the dissolved gelatin and stir well.

  3. Strain again and mold the jelly as desired.

Finish

  1. For a tart flavor, add lemon juice to taste.

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. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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 flavor and most of the liquid that becomes the jelly.
Gelatin
Sets the strained tomato liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens and sharpens the tomato flavor.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatin fully. Gelatin must first soak in cold water so it hydrates, then be stirred until completely dissolved. Undissolved granules or lumps leave uneven pockets, so the jelly sets weak or patchy in places.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, clove, onion, celery, gelatin):

  1. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  2. Limebetter flavor fit
  3. Mangobetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, clove, onion, celery, 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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