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Cider Apple Jelly

A jelly made from apples cooked in cider and sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider 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 ↓

Cider Apple Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook the apples

  1. Wipe the apples clean and cut them into quarters.

  2. Place the quarters in a kettle and cover with sweet new cider.

  3. Boil until the apples are well done.

Strain the juice

  1. Drain the mixture through a sieve, avoiding pressing the pulp.

Make the jelly

  1. Measure the liquid and add 1 pound of white sugar for each pint.

  2. Boil for 20 to 30 minutes.

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

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

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

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

  3. Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Good apples
Provide pectin and acid, which help the liquid set into a jelly.
Sweet new cider
Supplies the liquid base and the apple flavour for the jelly.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and, with boiling, helps the pectin set the jelly.

The step that matters

Avoid pressing the pulp. Pressing the drained pulp forces fine solids through the sieve, which makes the finished jelly cloudy instead of clear.

“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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