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Dessert

Spiced Apples

A preserved apple dish flavored with vinegar, spices, and citrus peels.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Apples

Ingredients

Directions

Make the spiced syrup

  1. Make a thin syrup by combining water and sugar with a little vinegar.

  2. Tie whole cloves, stick cinnamon, bits of nutmeg, and orange or lemon peels in a cheesecloth bag.

  3. Boil the spice bag in the syrup for five minutes. Remove the spice bag.

Cook the apples

  1. Drop in whole cored apples.

  2. Cook until they are well saturated with the syrup but not soft.

Jar and sterilize

  1. Pack the apples in sterilized jars.

  2. Fill the jars with syrup.

  3. Seal jars with rubbers and tops. Adjust the spring.

  4. Place jars in a boiler and sterilize for 12 minutes. Press down the spring. Remove the jars.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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

Whole cored apples
The fruit that absorbs the syrup and holds its shape when gently cooked.
Sugar (in the method)
Sweetens the syrup and gives it body as it simmers.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the syrup and balances the sweetness.
Stick cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma to the syrup that the apples absorb.
Whole cloves
Contributes pungent aroma to the syrup that the apples absorb.

The step that matters

Cook the apples until saturated but not soft. Heat softens the apple's cell walls and pectin, so overcooking turns the fruit to mush. Stopping when the syrup has penetrated keeps the apples firm and whole.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange. 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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