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Dessert

Apple Jam

Apple jam is a sweet preserve made from apples, sugar, cloves, ginger, and lemon rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and core the apples, then cut them into thin slices.

Make the jam

  1. In a preserving kettle, combine the apple slices with 3 cups of white sugar for every 4 pounds of fruit.

  2. Add the cloves, ginger, and lemon rind tied in a piece of muslin.

  3. Stir over high heat for 30 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the bulk of the fruit, pectin, and tart flavor that give the jam its body.
White sugar
Sweetens the jam and draws water out of the fruit, helping it thicken as it cooks.
Lemon rind
Adds bright acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness of the sugar.

The step that matters

Stir over high heat for 30 minutes. Constant stirring over high heat keeps the sugar and fruit from scorching on the bottom of the kettle while the water evaporates and the mixture thickens into jam.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, clove, ginger, lemon):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, ginger, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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