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Dessert

Apple Paste

Apple paste is a sweet preserve made from cooked apples, water, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Apple Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pulp

  1. Cut, core, and quarter the apples.

  2. Place them in a pan with water on the stove.

  3. Once cooked, rub the apples through a sieve to make a pulp.

Make the paste

  1. Add 15 ounces of pounded sugar for every pound of pulp.

  2. Finish cooking quickly over the fire until thick.

Dry and shape

  1. Pour the mixture into square tins and dry in the stove.

  2. Cut into fancy shapes.

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

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

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

Marmalade apples
Provide the fruit pulp and natural pectin that helps the paste hold its shape.
Pounded sugar
Sweetens the paste and, as it cooks down, helps it thicken and set firmly.

The step that matters

Finish cooking quickly over the fire until thick. The pulp is now rich in sugar, which scorches easily over direct heat. Keep it moving and watch closely so it thickens evenly without burning, since water must evaporate for the paste to set.

“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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