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Tomato Jelly with Nut Salad
Cook tomatoes; season with celery, onion, cloves, bay leaf, salt, pepper and paprika. Add gelatine dissolved in water; pour into a mould. When cold fill center with any nice nut salad.
A ring-mould tomato aspic with a salad filling, written in the telegraphic style of the period — no quantities, no times. The proportions are the whole problem, so start there.
- The proportion that decides everythingFor a jelly firm enough to unmould, use 1 envelope (about 2 1/4 teaspoons) powdered gelatine per 2 cups of strained tomato liquid. The book gives no figure, as is usual for its telegraphic style; modern powder is standardised and 1 envelope sets 2 cups reliably.
- "Cook tomatoes"Roughly 3 lb fresh tomatoes, quartered, or a 28 oz can with its juice, simmered 20-25 minutes with the aromatics until slack and pulpy. The recipe does not say to strain, but straining through a sieve gives a smoother jelly rather than a purée.
- Seasonings, in measurable amountsTwo celery stalks with leaves, half an onion, 3 or 4 whole cloves, one bay leaf, salt, pepper and a good pinch of paprika for 2 cups of liquid. Fish out the cloves and bay before adding gelatine; cloves left in will dominate a cold dish, where flavours read blunter than they do hot.
- Blooming the gelatineSoften it in 1/4 cup cold water for five minutes, then stir into the hot strained tomato off the heat until fully dissolved. Count that 1/4 cup as part of your 2 cups of liquid, or the jelly will come out soft.
- The mould"Fill center" implies a ring mould. Use a tube pan or ring tin of about 2-cup capacity so the jelly fills it; oil it very lightly and dip the base in hot water for a few seconds to release.
- Setting time"When cold" means thoroughly set, not merely cool — four hours in the refrigerator, or overnight. Turn out onto the serving plate only when the jelly is firm to a fingertip in the centre.
- The nut saladThe recipe leaves this open ("any nice nut salad"); nut salads of the period commonly used walnuts, pecans or blanched almonds with chopped celery and apple, bound with mayonnaise or a boiled dressing. Fill the ring at the last minute; mayonnaise slumps against wet aspic if it stands.
- YieldFour to six servings as a first course or luncheon salad, depending on the amount of filling. Cut with a thin knife dipped in hot water.
Tomato aspic belongs to the moment when commercial granulated gelatine turned a laborious calf's-foot preparation into a pantry staple, and American cookbooks of the 1890s and 1900s filled with moulded salads as a result. The ring mould with a filled centre was the fashionable form: it let a cook present two dishes as one and looked impressive on a buffet or luncheon table at no great cost. This is light cold food for a ladies' luncheon or a summer supper, of a piece with the other things you would serve alongside thin bread and butter.