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Salad

Tomato Jelly Salad

A chilled tomato gelatin salad served on lettuce with mayonnaise dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,047 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Combine canned tomatoes, cloves, onion juice, cayenne pepper, and salt in a saucepan.

  2. Cook for about 20 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture over the soaked gelatin until dissolved.

  4. Add lemon juice and sweeten to taste.

  5. Strain everything together.

Mold and serve

  1. Mold the mixture in individual cups.

  2. Refrigerate until cold.

  3. Serve on lettuce 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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Tomato + lettucetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,655 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Sets the tomato liquid into a firm, sliceable mold when chilled.
Canned tomatoes
Provide the main body, acidity and flavor of the salad.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the tomato flavor and balances sweetness.

The step that matters

Strain the mixture over the soaked gelatin until dissolved. Gelatin must be fully dissolved in hot liquid before chilling; undissolved granules leave gritty spots and weak setting. Straining also removes cloves and solids so the mold is smooth and clear.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, clove, pepper, gelatin, lemon, sugar, 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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