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Tomato Jelly Salad
Cook three cups of canned tomatoes with a slice of onion; a stalk of celery; one bay leaf; four cloves; a small piece of green pepper pod; salt and one teaspoon of sugar. Add one-half box of gelatine which has been soaked in one-half cup of cold water. When the gelatine is dissolved, 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.
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 straightforward savory aspic that depends almost entirely on getting the gelatine ratio right. The original assumes a cook who knows what a "box" of gelatine holds and how long to simmer a flavoring infusion; neither is stated.
- Half a box of gelatinePeriod boxes were commonly one ounce divided into four envelopes, so half a box is about two envelopes, roughly 4 to 4 1/2 teaspoons of granulated gelatine. Box sizes were not standardized, though, so treat this as the guide rather than gospel: two envelopes will set three cups of liquid to a firm unmolding jelly.
- Bloom, then dissolveSoak the gelatine in the half cup of cold water until it swells and goes opaque, about five minutes, then stir it into the hot tomato off the boil. Boiling gelatine weakens its set.
- Cooking time, unstatedThe tomato and aromatics need about 15 to 20 minutes at a bare simmer to draw out the onion, celery, bay and clove. Longer only concentrates and darkens it.
- StrainingStrain through a fine sieve and resist pressing the solids through. Pulp forced into the liquid makes the finished jelly cloudy and grainy rather than translucent.
- Green pepper podProbably a sweet green pepper, though in cookery of the period 'pepper pod' could equally mean a small hot pepper; the recipe does not say. A one-inch piece with the seeds removed is enough.
- SettingRinse the cups or the square pan in cold water before filling, and chill at least four hours or overnight. To unmold, dip the cups a few seconds in warm water and invert.
- Salt and acidCanned tomatoes today vary widely in salt and added acid. Taste the strained liquid before adding the gelatine, when you can still correct it; once set, nothing can be done.
- YieldThree cups of liquid fills six molds of tomato size, or one 8-inch square pan for cutting into cubes or diamonds.
Tomato jelly belongs to the age of the American molded salad, which flourished from the 1890s onward, once commercially granulated gelatine turned aspic from a labor of calves' feet and long clarifying into an afternoon's work. The Butterick Publishing Company, better known for dress patterns, aimed its cook book at the middle-class housekeeper it sold patterns to, and molded salads suited her: they were made ahead, held in the icebox, looked deliberate on the table, and used canned tomatoes, by this date a common and inexpensive grocery staple. The instruction to mold the jelly in a square pan and cut it into diamonds as a garnish suggests a period that valued a salad for its geometry as much as its flavor. The seasoning here, clove and bay and a slice of onion, follows the standard aspic infusion of French cookery, applied to a thoroughly American ingredient.