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Dessert

Apple Butter

Apple butter is a thick, brown apple preserve made by cooking apples and cider.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Apple Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Reduce the cider

  1. Boil down the cider to two-thirds of its original quantity.

Stew the apples

  1. Pare, core, and slice enough apples to cover the cider.

  2. Boil slowly, stirring often, until the apples are tender.

  3. Remove the apples with a perforated skimmer, draining well.

  4. Add more apples and stew until soft.

Combine and finish

  1. Combine all in a tub or large crock, cover, and let stand for twelve hours.

  2. Return to the kettle and boil down, stirring continuously until thick and brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Cider + appletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cider
Provides the liquid that is reduced, concentrating its sugars and flavor into the butter.
Apples
Break down into a soft pulp that thickens the butter and adds body and sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil down the final mixture while stirring continuously. As water evaporates, sugars concentrate and can scorch on the bottom of the kettle. Constant stirring prevents burning and lets the mixture thicken and brown evenly.

“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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