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Dessert

Cranberry Jelly

A sweet preserve made from cranberries, apples, sugar, and optional cinnamon, cooked until the fruit breaks down and the mixture thickens.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Cranberry Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Wash and pick over the cranberries.

  2. Put cranberries, water, and quartered apples into a stew pan.

  3. Cover and cook until cranberries pop and apples are tender.

  4. Rub the mixture through a sieve or colander.

Sweeten and set

  1. Add sugar and return to the fire, stirring until dissolved.

  2. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.

  3. Add cinnamon if desired.

  4. Pour into a mold or individual glasses.

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Cranberries
Provide the tart flavor and the pectin that lets the jelly set.
Apples
Add natural pectin and body to help the jelly firm up.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and helps it hold its gel structure.
Water
Provides the liquid needed to soften the fruit and extract its juices.

The step that matters

Rubbing the mixture through a sieve. Pushing the cooked fruit through a sieve removes skins and seeds, leaving a smooth, clear-textured jelly. Skipping or rushing this leaves gritty, 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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