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 ↓
Crab-apple Jellt
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Boil apples in just enough water to cover them until tender.
Mash the apples with a spoon and strain out the juice.
Make the jelly
Combine 1 pint of juice with 1 pound of sugar in a pot.
Boil for 30 minutes, then strain through a fine sieve.
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
- Supply the juice and natural pectin that helps the jelly set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set by binding water and holding the pectin network.
The step that matters
Boil the juice and sugar for 30 minutes. Boiling evaporates water and concentrates the sugar and pectin. If boiled too briefly the jelly stays runny, and if boiled too long it can turn dark and overly stiff.
“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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