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Dessert

Apple Marmalade

A preserve made from peeled apples, sugar, cinnamon or lemon, and water, cooked until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel, core, and slice the apples into a preserving pan.

  2. Add ½ pint of water and the cinnamon or lemon.

Cook

  1. Cover and heat until dissolved.

  2. Stir in the bruised sugar and cook over a brisk fire until thick.

Set

  1. Remove from heat and pour into pots or molds.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 bulk of the marmalade and, as they break down, its pectin-driven body.
Sugar
Sweetens the marmalade and, as it cooks down, helps it thicken into a spreadable set.
Water
Adds moisture so the apples can soften and dissolve evenly before the mixture thickens.

The step that matters

Cook until thick. Apples and sugar must be cooked long enough for the mixture to reduce and thicken. Undercooked fruit stays runny and will not set when cooled.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon. 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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