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Apples Stewed with Cloves

A sweet stew of apples simmered with cloves in a sugar‑water syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Apples Stewed with Cloves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine sugar and water in a bright tin milk-pan.

  2. Peel and core the apples, and insert five cloves into each apple.

Stew

  1. Heat the syrup until hot, then add the apples.

  2. Cover and boil until nearly done, then uncover to allow the apples to become clear.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the fruit that softens and turns tender and clear as they stew.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and dissolves into the water to form the syrup.
Cloves
Add aromatic spice flavor that infuses into the apples as they cook.

The step that matters

Uncovering to let the apples clear. Boiling covered until nearly done cooks the apples gently, and removing the lid lets steam escape and the syrup concentrate. Watching the apples closely at this point helps them turn clear without overcooking and falling apart.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar. 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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