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 ↓
Apple Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Choose cooking apples and remove the parings and cores.
Boil the parings and cores in enough water to cover them until the gluten is extracted.
Strain the mixture and add the juice to the chopped apples.
Cook the butter
For each gallon of chopped apples, add 5 quarts of boiled cider.
Cook the mixture all day.
To check if it's done, place a little on a plate and invert it; if it adheres, the butter is ready.
Store the apple butter
Transfer the apple butter to glass jars with open mouths and seal them airtight.
Alternatively, you can use stone jars and cover them with pieces of letter paper dipped in brandy.
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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Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,238 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cooking apples
- Break down into the thick, smooth body of the butter as they cook.
- Boiled cider
- Adds concentrated sweetness and tang, and thickens as its water evaporates during cooking.
The step that matters
Testing for doneness with the plate test. Apple butter thickens only as water evaporates and sugars concentrate over long cooking. Removing it too early leaves a runny spread that may not hold its set, so the plate test checks that it has thickened enough.
“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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