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Tomato Jelly Salad

A gelatin-based salad made from cooked tomatoes, onion, celery, and sugar, set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,377 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Cook the tomatoes, onion, and celery in a pot for about 15 minutes.

  2. Add sugar and salt, then strain the mixture.

  3. Dissolve the gelatin in water and add it to the strained mixture.

  4. Bring to a boil, then pour into a mold to harden.

Serve

  1. Serve with salad 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. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,377 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Celery + gelatintop 26% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together172 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Sets the strained tomato liquid into a firm, sliceable mold.
Tomatoes
Provide the main body, acidity and flavor of the salad base.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes and rounds out their flavor.
Celery
Adds a mild, fresh vegetable flavor and some texture to the base.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and depth to the cooked tomato mixture.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatin fully before adding it. Gelatin must dissolve completely in the warm liquid to set evenly. Undissolved granules leave gritty pockets, and the mixture may set unevenly or fail to firm up properly in the mold.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, celery, gelatin):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  3. Lettucebetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, 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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