Name: Sirup Made From Windfall Apples and Apple Cider
Ingredients: 5 pounds windfall apples; 10 pounds apple cider; 1 quart water; 11 pounds sugar; 8 pounds strawberries

Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Sirup Made From Windfall Apples and Apple Cider

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

Combine 1 quart of water and 11 pounds of sugar in an open kettle.
Cook until the mixture reaches 265°F (130°C) on a candy thermometer.
Add 8 pounds of strawberries to the syrup.
Cook slowly at just below boiling until the thermometer reads 219°F (104°C).

Cool and skim

Pour the mixture into shallow pans to cool, skimming off any foam.

Jar and seal

Fill hot jars with the syrup, placing the rubber and cap loosely on top.
Sterilize jars in a water bath for 20 minutes.
Tighten the covers, invert the jars to cool, and test the seals.

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.

Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,238 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,308 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

Sugar: Provides sweetness and, once concentrated by cooking, the body and preservation of the syrup.
Strawberries: Add fruit flavor and color to the syrup as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cook to 219°F (104°C) slowly, just below boiling. Sugar concentration sets the syrup. Cooking to the target temperature removes enough water for it to thicken and keep well. Stopping early leaves it thin and prone to spoilage, while overcooking pushes it toward crystallizing. Slow heat prevents scorching.

“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.