Why it works: Sugar and banana are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,102 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Apple-banana Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Boil crabapples in a little water until tender.
Strain the juice through a flannel bag and boil for 20 minutes.
Make the jelly
For each cup of syrup, add 1 cup of sugar and boil for 5 minutes or until it jellies.
Pour into a pitcher and add banana flavoring to taste.
Pour into glasses and let cool.
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.
-
Sugar + bananatop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,102 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Crabapples
- Provide the fruit juice, whose natural pectin and acid help the jelly set.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with boiling, helps the pectin form a firm gel.
- Banana flavoring
- Adds aroma and flavor, added to taste after the jelly is cooked.
The step that matters
Boiling the syrup with sugar until it jellies. The sugar and pectin only set properly when the syrup reaches the right concentration by boiling. Stopping too early leaves the jelly runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff and cloudy.
“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.
You might also like
Banana Filling16 recipes
Banana Sherbet10 recipes
Banana Float9 recipes
White Cake431 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.