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Tomato Salad

A tomato salad with carrot, onion, celery, nuts, grapes, orange, and gelatin set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Tomato Salad

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,173 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Tomato Salad

one mold per person

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomato base

  1. Strain the can of tomatoes, ensuring no seeds remain.

  2. Boil the carrot, onion, and celery in the tomato juice.

  3. Strain the mixture through several folds of cheesecloth.

Make the jelly

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in boiling water, then add the strained tomato juice.

  2. When nearly cold and thickening, place a spoonful in a mold.

Fill and serve

  1. Drop in three nut meats, a couple spoons of jelly, grapes, orange pieces, more nuts, and more jelly until filled.

  2. Set on ice and serve on a nest of lettuce hearts, one mold per person, garnished with a candied orange straw.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Carrot + orangetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,606 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together21,601 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 colour of the jelly, with the juice setting into the gelatine.
Gelatine
Sets the tomato juice into a firm, sliceable jelly that holds its shape in the mold.
Carrot
Adds body and subtle sweetness to the tomato juice once boiled and strained.
Onion
Adds savoury depth to the tomato juice once boiled and strained.
Celery
Adds a fresh, vegetal aroma to the tomato juice once boiled and strained.

The step that matters

Adding the spoonful of jelly to the mold while nearly cold and thickening. Gelatine sets as it cools. If the mixture is too hot, it will not hold the fillings in place, and if it has already set firm, the layers will not bond together or fill the mold evenly.

Flavor stand-ins for the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, carrot, onion, celery, meat, grape, orange):

  1. Beansbetter flavor fit
  2. Chickpeabetter flavor fit
  3. Walnutbetter flavor fit
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, carrot, onion, celery, meat, grape, orange. 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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