Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Quarter the codlings and place them in a preserving pan with the lemon peel, cinnamon, and cloves.
Add enough spring water to just cover the apples and boil until they become a pulp.
Make the jelly
Strain the mixture through a jelly bag to extract the juice.
For every pint of juice, add ¾ pound of sugar and boil rapidly until it jellies.
Pour the jelly into pots or molds to set.
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.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Codlings
- Apples supply the pectin and fruit flavour that let the juice set into a jelly.
- Loaf sugar
- Sugar sweetens the jelly and, with boiling, helps it reach a firm, set texture.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with sugar until it jellies. The mixture must reach a rapid boil with the sugar so enough water evaporates and the pectin can gel. Under-boiling leaves a runny jelly, while over-boiling can make it stiff or caramelise the sugar.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, cinnamon, clove, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Quincefits better
- Pearfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, cinnamon, clove, 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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