Skip to main content
Dessert

Apple Ginger

Apples simmered in a ginger-infused sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,424 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Apple Ginger

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine 2 pounds of finely pounded loaf sugar and 14 pints of water in a preserving pan.

  2. Boil the mixture and skim off any foam.

  3. Add a little concentrated ginger to the syrup.

Cook the apples

  1. Pare, core, and slice the apples.

  2. Add the sliced apples to the syrup.

  3. Boil the apples quickly until they are very clear.

  4. Transfer the apples to a dish.

Jar and seal

  1. Pour the syrup into a jar.

  2. Once the syrup is cold, add the apple slices.

  3. Seal the jar tightly to exclude air.

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

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

  2. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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 pieces that become clear and tender during the gentle boil.
Loaf sugar
Dissolves into the water to form the syrup and preserves the fruit through its sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil the apples quickly until they are very clear. Boiling too long can break the slices apart and make the syrup cloudy, while stopping too early leaves the fruit opaque. Sugar concentration rises as water evaporates, so timing affects both texture and keeping quality.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger. 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.

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesGinger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesGinger CakeGinger Cake93 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipes