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Apple and Crabapple Jams

A jam made from equal parts fresh apples or crabapples and granulated sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Apple and Crabapple Jams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Thoroughly mash the fruit or process it through a colander until smooth.

Make the jam

  1. Add the sugar and stir with a wooden spoon for at least 30 minutes until fully dissolved.

  2. Pour the mixture into glasses and leave uncovered in a cool, dry place for about a week until a sugary crust forms on top.

Store

  1. Once the crust forms, cover the glasses and store in a cool place.

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

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

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

Fruit (apples or crabapples)
Provides pectin, acids and the main flavour once mashed into a smooth pulp.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the jam and, at high concentration, helps preserve it and form a crust.

The step that matters

Stirring until the sugar fully dissolves. Undissolved sugar crystals can remain in the jam and seed later crystallisation. Stirring steadily for the full time gives a smooth, evenly sweet result.

“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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