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Tomato Jelly Salad
3 cups stewed tomatoes, fresh or canned 1 slice onion 1 stalk celery 1 bay-leaf 1 clove 1/4 green pepper pod 1 teaspoon sugar Salt 1/2 box gelatin 1/2 cup cold water Lettuce Mayonnaise Cook tomatoes with seasonings. Soak gelatin in cold water, add to boiling tomatoes, strain and pour into cups about the size of a tomato. Make a nest of small green lettuce leaves for each mold when serving, and place one tablespoon of mayonnaise on top of each tomato as it is turned from the mold. Tomato jelly is often molded in a square pan and cut in diamonds or cubes, when it makes a very acceptable accessory to other salads and an attractive garnish.
A tomato aspic in individual molds, from the era when packaged granulated gelatin had just made unmolded salads a weeknight possibility. The measurements translate cleanly once you know what a "box" of gelatin held.
- Half a box of gelatinA box of granulated gelatin of this period held about 1 oz, divided into four 1/4-oz envelopes. Half a box is 2 envelopes, roughly 4 1/2 teaspoons, which sets 3 cups of liquid firmly enough to unmold.
- Soften before it meets heatThe gelatin must sit in the 1/2 cup cold water until it swells and turns opaque, about 5 minutes, before going into the hot tomatoes. Granules dropped straight into boiling liquid seize into lumps that never dissolve.
- Strain, then measureStraining removes the onion, celery, bay-leaf, clove and pepper pod along with tomato seeds and skin. Cooking reduces the volume, so top the strained liquid back up to 3 cups with water or tomato juice if it has fallen short, or the jelly will set rubbery.
- Salt is unspecifiedThe original leaves the salt to judgment. Start with 1/2 teaspoon in the strained liquid and taste while it is still warm; chilling mutes seasoning noticeably, so it should taste slightly assertive going into the molds.
- Molds and chilling"Cups about the size of a tomato" means roughly 1/2-cup molds, custard cups or ramekins. Chill at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, and dip the mold briefly in warm water to release.
- Canned tomatoesCanned whole or crushed tomatoes work directly; a 28-oz can gives about the right volume. Canned tomatoes vary in acidity and sweetness, so taste before adding the teaspoon of sugar.
- YieldAbout 6 individual molds, or one 8-inch square pan cut into cubes or diamonds for use as a garnish, as the last line suggests.
Gelatin salads like this one belong to the stretch between about 1900 and the Second World War, when granulated gelatin sold in pre-measured boxes replaced the older labor of boiling calf's feet or isinglass for hours to get a setting liquid. Once a firm jelly could be had cheaply and with little work, cookbooks filled with molded savories, and the tomato version became one of the most common of the group: cheap, brightly colored, made from a pantry can, and equally at home as a first course, a plated salad or the decorative border around something else. The New Delineator Recipes came out of The Delineator, the Butterick pattern company's magazine, whose readership was exactly the audience for a dish that looked considered on the table without demanding much of the cook. The aromatics here — onion, celery, bay, clove, green pepper — are a common seasoning combination for stewed tomatoes in American cookbooks of the period, and are strained out here so nothing clouds the set.