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Dessert

Apple Preserves

A sweet apple preserve made by layering apples and sugar, clarifying the syrup with egg whites, and simmering until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Apple Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the syrup

  1. Weigh the apples and sugar, using equal amounts.

  2. In a stone jar, layer the apples and sugar, moistening each layer with water.

  3. Let it sit overnight.

  4. In the morning, remove the apples and pour the syrup into a kettle, adding enough water to cook the apples.

  5. Clarify the syrup with the egg whites, strain it, and return it to the kettle.

Cook the apples

  1. Heat the syrup until nearly boiling, then add the apples.

  2. Scald the apples briefly without breaking them.

  3. Remove the apples and place them in dishes to sun until slightly tough.

  4. Return the apples to the syrup, boil briefly, and sun again.

  5. Return the apples to the syrup and boil until clear and thick.

  6. Flavor with sliced lemons or ginger.

  7. Seal tightly.

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

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

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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

Apples
Provide the fruit body that softens, turns translucent and holds its shape during repeated cooking.
Sugar
Sweetens and, as it concentrates in the syrup, helps preserve the fruit and thicken the syrup.
Egg whites
Bind impurities in the syrup so they can be skimmed or strained off, leaving it clear.

The step that matters

Scald the apples without breaking them. Pectin-rich apple flesh softens quickly with heat, and overcooking causes the pieces to fall apart. Brief heating followed by sunning firms the fruit so it keeps its shape.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, lemon. 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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