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Tomato Jelly Salad
Mabel Andrews.
To one can stewed and strained tomatoes add 1 t each of salt and powdered sugar, and 2-3 box gelatin, which has soaked fifteen minutes in one-half cup cold water. Pour into small cups and chill. Run a knife around inside of molds so that when taken out shapes may have a rough surface, suggesting a fresh tomato. Place on lettuce leaves and garnish top of each with mayonnaise dressing. 2 cans shrimps
A tomato aspic from the era when molded salads signaled a hostess with a refrigerator. The recipe is compact to the point of terseness, and two of its lines need decoding before you start.
- "2-3 box gelatin"This is almost certainly two-thirds of a box, not "2 to 3." Box sizes varied by brand, but a box of granulated gelatine commonly ran about 1 oz divided into envelopes, so two-thirds of a box is a generous amount — a firm, sliceable set of the kind needed to unmold and hold a scored surface. Treat it as approximate and judge by the volume of tomato you actually have.
- The can of tomatoesCan sizes were not standardized; "one can" in this period could run anywhere from about a pint to a quart. Stewed and strained means passed through a sieve to remove seeds and skin, giving a thin purée. Modern canned tomatoes are thicker; thin with a little water or tomato juice if the purée is closer to paste than to juice.
- Dissolve, do not boilThe gelatine softens in cold water for fifteen minutes, then must be dissolved in hot tomato. Heat the strained tomato to steaming, stir the bloomed gelatine in off the heat until no grains remain, and stop there. Prolonged boiling weakens the set and dulls the tomato flavor.
- The stray line of shrimp"2 cans shrimps" appears with no instruction, a common lapse in community cookbooks. Either fold the drained shrimp into the tomato as it begins to thicken, or heap them on the lettuce beside the unmolded jelly. Canned shrimp benefits from a rinse and a squeeze of lemon before use.
- Timing the setSmall cups need about three hours in the refrigerator; a single large mold needs four to six. Chill until firm all the way through, or the roughened surface the recipe wants will slump rather than hold.
- The rough surfaceRunning a knife around the inside of the cup is the whole visual point: it scores the jelly so the unmolded shape reads as a real tomato rather than a smooth dome. Dip the cup briefly in warm water first to release it cleanly.
- SeasoningTaste the warm mixture before molding; a little lemon juice, celery salt or a dash of hot sauce is in keeping with the period.
- YieldAbout six small molds, serving six as a first course or luncheon salad.
Molded gelatine salads spread through American church and club cookbooks in the first decades of the twentieth century, once granulated gelatine sold in boxes removed the old labor of boiling calves' feet for stock. Tomato aspic was among the more durable of them, valued because it could be made a day ahead, turned out cold, and made to look like something other than what it was. The two cans of shrimp are their own small period marker: canned Gulf shrimp had become cheap and widely distributed by the early 1900s, and inland cooks used it freely as a luxury garnish.