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Jams, Jellies, Relishes, Etc

A sweet preserve made from apple cider, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Jams, Jellies, Relishes, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

Make the spiced cider

  1. Combine sugar and spices in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

  2. Add cider and bring just to boiling point.

  3. Cover and simmer at low heat for about 20 minutes.

Finish and bake

  1. Strain and serve.

  2. Pour over three small oranges studded with cloves and bake for 20-25 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Apple cider
Forms the liquid base and supplies the main apple flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deeper, caramel-like note.
Cinnamon stick
Releases warm aroma into the liquid as it simmers.
Whole allspice
Adds a warm, peppery aroma as it steeps in the liquid.
Whole cloves
Adds a strong, sharp spice aroma as it steeps in the liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer gently with the lid on. Low heat with a cover lets the spices release their aromas slowly while limiting evaporation, so the liquid does not reduce too quickly or turn harsh.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, cider, sugar, allspice, clove):

  1. Applethe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Quincefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, cider, sugar, allspice, clove. 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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