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 Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cook the apples
Remove the stems and tops from the apples and wash them thoroughly.
Cut the apples into quarters and place them in a pot with enough cold water to cover them.
Boil the apples until soft, then strain the mixture through a jelly bag.
Make the jelly
Combine 2 pints of the strained juice with 2 pounds of crushed sugar and boil for 20 minutes.
Repeat the process with the remaining juice.
Use the leftovers
To use the leftover apples, do not strain too finely; add a little more water to make sauce or pies.
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 natural pectin and acid, which help the juice set into a jelly.
- Crushed sugar
- Helps the jelly set, adds sweetness, and preserves the finished jelly.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with sugar for 20 minutes. The jelly sets only when enough sugar, pectin and acid are concentrated by boiling. Too little boiling leaves a runny jelly, while overboiling can make it stiff or cause sugar to crystallise.
“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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