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 Pulp Preserve
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apples
Hash the apples.
Cut them in half.
Remove the tops and tails without peeling or coring.
Stew and sieve
Place the apples in a preserving pan with enough water to just cover them.
Set the pan by the fire to stew slowly until the apples are soft enough to rub through a sieve.
If the mixture thickens, add a little more water.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve until only the skins and cores remain.
Sweeten and boil
For every pint of pulp, add ½ lb. of sugar.
Boil for nearly an hour, or until a small amount placed on a plate sets.
Transfer the preserve into jam pots or delph shapes for storage.
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 bulk of the pulp, along with natural pectin that helps the preserve set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the preserve and, with boiling, thickens it and helps it set.
The step that matters
Boil until the preserve sets. Sugar and pectin only gel once enough water has evaporated and the concentration is high enough. Stopping too early leaves a runny preserve, while overboiling can make it stiff and sticky. The plate test shows when it is ready.
“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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