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Siberian Crab Apple Jelly

A jelly made from crab apples, lemon, water, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Siberian Crab Apple Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Wash the crab apples in two waters and spread them on a cloth-covered table.

  2. Select the finest apples, cut off the stems, remove the blossom ends, and slice them into three pieces, including skins, cores, and seeds.

  3. Weigh the apples.

Extract the juice

  1. Combine the apples with 1 quart of cold water and 1 sliced lemon (seeds removed) in a porcelain preserving kettle.

  2. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture through a linen cloth, processing small quantities at a time.

  4. Strain the juice again.

  5. Measure 1 pint of juice.

Make and set the jelly

  1. Add 1 pound of sugar to the preserving kettle.

  2. Stir well.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  4. Boil for 5 minutes.

  5. Pour the jelly into glasses lined with brandy-dipped writing paper.

  6. Seal the glasses with metal covers once cool.

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 + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Crab + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together387 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Crab + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together407 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, 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

Crab apples
Provide the bulk of the fruit, along with natural pectin and tartness that help the jelly set.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and, with the cooked juice, helps it set into a firm gel.
Lemon
Adds acidity that supports pectin setting and brightens the flavor.

The step that matters

Boiling the juice with sugar. The jelly sets only when enough sugar and acid are concentrated by boiling. Too short a boil leaves it runny, while overcooking can make it stiff or darken its flavor. Skimming foam keeps the jelly clear.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, lemon, sugar):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against crab, lemon, 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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