Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Crab Apple Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the juice
Combine 1 gallon of crab apples and 6 pints of water in a pot. Add a few cloves or drops of lemon juice.
Boil for 30 minutes, then strain through a cloth.
Make the jelly
For each pint of juice, add 1 lb of sugar.
Boil for 1 hour until the jelly is made.
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 + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Crab + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together407 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).
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Crab + appletop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together343 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together17,182 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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
- Crab apples
- Provide the fruit flavour and natural pectin that help the juice set into jelly.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm when boiled with the juice.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens flavour and supports pectin setting.
The step that matters
Boil the sugar and juice for 1 hour. Boiling concentrates the juice and sugar until the pectin and acid can gel. Too little boiling leaves the jelly runny, while overboiling can make it dark and sticky.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, apple, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against crab, apple, sugar. 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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