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 the apples
Peel, core, and slice the apples into a preserving pan.
Add ½ pint of water and the flavoring bundle.
Cook
Cover and place on the fire to boil until dissolved.
Add the bruised sugar and stir with a clean wooden spoon over a brisk fire.
Cook until the mixture thickens and runs slowly off the spoon.
Pot
Immediately remove from the fire and pour into pots or molds.
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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Break down into pulp, providing the body and natural pectin that let the marmalade set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and helps it thicken as the mixture reduces.
- Cinnamon or lemon
- Adds aroma and flavor to the apples as they cook.
The step that matters
Cook until the mixture thickens and runs slowly off the spoon. Sugar and fruit pectin set as water evaporates and the mixture concentrates. Removing it too early leaves a runny marmalade, while overcooking can scorch the sugar and make it stiff.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- 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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