Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Apple Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Wash and cut apples into small pieces without peeling or coring them.
Place apples in a granite or porcelain kettle and add enough water to cover them.
Cook slowly until very soft.
Pour the mixture into a cheesecloth bag and hang it up to drain overnight without squeezing.
For every 3 cups of juice, add 2½ cups of sugar and the juice of ½ lemon.
Boil and set
Boil the lemon with the fruit juice rapidly for 20 minutes before adding the warmed sugar.
After adding sugar, boil for another 5 to 10 minutes, skimming often.
Prepare a pan with a cloth spread inside and place glasses with a teaspoon in each.
Add cold water to the pan until it reaches about 1 inch up the sides of the glasses.
Pour the hot juice into the glasses and remove the spoons once partially cool.
When completely cool, cover with tissue paper dampened in brandy or alcohol.
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 + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Pectin and natural acid give the juice the body and tartness that let it set into jelly.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and, with the fruit's pectin and acid, helps it set firm.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity that supports pectin setting and brightens the flavour of the jelly.
The step that matters
Boil the juice with lemon before adding sugar. Boiling the juice rapidly first concentrates it and activates its natural pectin and acid, so the jelly sets properly once sugar is added and boiled further.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar):
- Pearfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against 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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