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
Prepare
Boil the cider until it reduces to half its quantity.
Peel and core the apples.
Add the apples to the boiled cider.
Cook and store
Stir constantly for 8 to 10 hours until soft.
To test if done, it should adhere to an inverted plate.
Store in stone jars, covering with writing paper pressed down on the apple butter.
Cover the jars with thick brown paper, tied down snugly.
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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Cider + appletop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- New cider
- Cooks down to a concentrated, sweet liquid that flavors and thickens the apple butter.
- Cooking apples
- Break down into soft pulp that forms the body of the butter.
The step that matters
Stir constantly during the long cook. Cider and apple sugars scorch easily on the bottom of the pot over a long simmer, and constant stirring prevents burnt flavor and uneven texture.
“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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