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Dessert

Raisins.

A preserved apple and raisin marmalade made with Madeira wine and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,920 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Raisins.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the apples and place them in a pot over low heat.

  2. Add the Madeira wine and sugar to the pot.

  3. Stew the apples until well cooked.

Make the marmalade

  1. Split and stone the raisins, then add them to the pot with enough water to prevent burning.

  2. Once everything is well dissolved, strain the mixture through a bowl and then through a sieve.

  3. Transfer to small preserve jars or mold as desired.

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 + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Madeira wine + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together343 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Madeira wine + raisintop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together61 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Cooking apples
Break down into pulp that gives the marmalade its body and natural pectin.
Raisins
Provide the main sweetness, dark color and concentrated fruit flavor as they dissolve.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the mixture while it thickens.
Madeira wine
Adds aromatic, fortified wine flavor that complements the dried fruit.

The step that matters

Add enough water before the raisins cook. Raisins are dense and sugary, so without enough water they can scorch on the bottom of the pot before they soften and dissolve.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Applethe original
  3. Currantfits about as well
  4. Orangefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against madeira wine, sugar, raisin. 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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