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Apple Butter, American

Apple butter is a dark brown jam made by slowly cooking apples with spices and cider.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Apple Butter, American

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Fill a preserving pan with the prepared apples.

  2. Add a slight flavoring of cloves, allspice, and cinnamon.

  3. Cover the apples with cider and boil slowly.

Cook

  1. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon until it becomes a dark brown jam.

  2. Remove from heat and place in well-covered jars.

Rest

  1. Let it sit for a few weeks before using.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

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

  5. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Break down into soft pulp that thickens into a spreadable butter.
Cider
Adds liquid so the apples can soften during slow boiling.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma that suits the apples.
Cloves
Adds a warm, pungent spice aroma in small amounts.
Allspice
Adds a warm, mixed-spice aroma that complements the apples.

The step that matters

Slow, occasional stirring until dark brown. Apples cooked for a long time with sugars and heat darken through caramelization and browning. Stirring prevents sticking and scorching on the bottom of the pan, which would give a burnt taste.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, allspice, cinnamon, cider):

  1. Applethe original
  2. Quincefits about as well
  3. Orangefits less well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, allspice, cinnamon, cider. 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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