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Dessert

Peas with Tomato Jelly

A gelatin dessert made from cooked tomatoes, peas, and cheese, set with gelatin and flavored with tarragon vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 456 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Peas with Tomato Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Cook the tomatoes, onion, salt, celery, and cold water for 15 minutes.

  2. Add the tarragon vinegar and softened gelatin, stirring until dissolved.

  3. Strain the mixture and add the peas and chopped cheese.

Set and serve

  1. Mold the mixture and refrigerate until hardened.

  2. Use as a garnish for salads, fish, or meat.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together456 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together391 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Cooked tomatoes
Provide the main liquid, flavour and colour of the jelly.
American cheese
Adds richness and a soft, melting texture to the set jelly.
Peas
Add body, mild sweetness and contrasting texture to the jelly.

The step that matters

Dissolving the gelatin fully. Gelatin must be softened and then stirred into the hot mixture until completely dissolved. Undissolved granules leave gritty spots and weak patches, so the jelly may not set evenly.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, onion, celery, tarragon, vinegar, gelatin, cheese):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, celery, tarragon, vinegar, gelatin, cheese. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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