Frozen Cucumber and Green Pepper Salad in Tomato Cups (1927)

Two quite different stuffed tomatoes

Bradley's Electric Refrigerator Menus and Recipes also contains Stuffed Tomatoes in Aspic. There, savory jelly encloses a filled tomato inside a mold. In this dish, the tomato encloses the cold salad instead. The similar names conceal two opposite arrangements.

The frozen salad also keeps the tomato centers. Scooped pulp is chopped and the juice strained, then both join the cucumber and pepper. Hollowing the tomatoes makes serving vessels without discarding everything removed from them. It gives the filling a direct connection to its cups.

Bradley's book was prepared for General Electric and distinguishes the appliance's freezing unit from its chilled space. This recipe belongs firmly to the first, while the aspic tomatoes belong to the second. You can explore that distinction through food rather than an appliance diagram in our feature on the cookbook.

Seasoned mayonnaise, chopped vegetables

Mayonnaise carries paprika, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, onion and cayenne through the filling. Sauce tartare is the source-linked alternative, with a brinier flavor. The cucumber tastes clean and fresh, the green pepper has a sharper vegetable bite, and the tomato contributes both flesh and liquid.

The vegetables are finely chopped, not blended smooth. That leaves something to notice in each spoonful besides the creamy base. Gelatin is mixed into that base rather than making a separate clear shell around the salad.

Our recipe specifies modern weights and a gelatin amount, uses smaller tomatoes than Bradley's six large ones, and softens the onion and mustard seasoning. Bradley directs the cook to stir the filling as it freezes; we leave it undisturbed. Lettuce and the detailed freezer timing are modern additions too.

A generous spoonful needs somewhere to go

Choose roomy tomato shells. Their weight is a shopping baseline, but their cavities determine how much filling they can hold. A small tomato doesn't become larger because the ingredient list divides the salad into six servings; extra filling can go beside the cups.

The tray matters for a different reason. Spreading the filling in a shallow layer gives the freezer stage a manageable shape, and the texture cue remains useful alongside its estimated time. The target is firm and semi-frozen, ready to heap into the chilled tomatoes and serve promptly. That frosty filling is the distinguishing feature to keep, even when the familiar vegetables tempt you to treat this as an ordinary mayonnaise salad.