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Dessert

Tomato Jelly

A gelatinous preserve made from tomatoes, spices, and egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 548 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Tomato Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine tomatoes, cloves, bay leaf, white pepper, Worcestershire sauce, mushroom catsup, onion, tarragon vinegar, sugar, and thyme in a pot.

  2. Cook for 20 minutes.

  3. Strain through a cloth.

  4. Add the soaked gelatine and beaten egg white.

  5. Bring to a boil.

  6. Set aside to cool.

  7. Strain again.

  8. Pour into molds.

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. Clove + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together548 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Tomato + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together391 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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 flavour and the liquid base of the jelly.
Gelatine
Sets the strained liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Egg white
Clarifies the liquid by trapping fine particles as it heats, leaving a clearer jelly.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the tomato flavour and balances the sugar.

The step that matters

Strain again. Straining through a cloth after the egg white has been heated lets the coagulated egg white and particles be removed, so the set jelly is clear rather than cloudy. Cooling before straining also keeps the liquid from clouding.

Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, clove, sauce, mushroom, onion, tarragon, vinegar):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  3. Capersbetter flavor fit
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, clove, sauce, mushroom, onion, tarragon, vinegar. 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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