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 Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apple pulp
Slice the sweet apples and place them in a basin with enough water to cover.
Cook on the fire until the apples are soft, then strain through a fine sieve.
Make the jelly
For dipping, mix 1 ounce of dissolved gelatin into 1 quart of the apple pulp.
Cook 5 pounds of sugar until it reaches a good ball stage, then stir in the apple pulp.
For a stiff jelly, add 1 pound of pulverized sugar to each pint of pulp, boil while stirring until it adheres to a spatula.
Use a funnel to pour the mixture into starch prints.
Pour the mixture into pans or trays and spread to your desired thickness.
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
- Sweet apples
- Provide the fruit pulp that gives the jelly its body and apple flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and, when boiled to a ball stage, helps it set firm.
- Gelatine
- Adds gel structure so the dipping jelly holds its shape.
- Pulverized sugar
- Adds sweetness and bulk to the stiff jelly as it boils down.
The step that matters
Boiling the sugar to the ball stage. Sugar cooked to the right temperature sets firmly as it cools. Undercooked sugar leaves the jelly soft, while overcooked sugar turns it brittle and grainy.
“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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