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
Boil apples in water until soft.
Remove apples from water, mash them, and pass the mash through a fine sieve.
Weigh the pulp and place it in a pan.
Make the paste
Add the same weight of sugar, clarify it, and boil to the large feather stage.
Mix the sugar with the pulp and place on low heat, stirring with a spatula.
When it begins to boil slightly, pour it thinly onto plates or into molds lined with tin.
Let it sit for 24 hours in a warm place before cutting into shapes.
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.
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Apples
- Provide the pectin and fruit pulp that set into a firm, sliceable paste.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the paste and, once boiled, helps it set firm and hold its shape.
The step that matters
Boiling the sugar to the large feather stage. Sugar cooked to this stage holds enough water-free structure to set the paste when cooled. Undercooked sugar leaves it soft and sticky, while overcooked sugar makes it hard and brittle.
“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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