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Dessert

Apple Jam

Apple jam is a sweet preserve made by cooking apples with sugar, cloves, ginger, and lemon rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and core the apples, then cut them into thin slices.

Cook

  1. Combine the apple slices with ¾ pound of white sugar for every pound of apples in a preserving kettle.

  2. Add the cloves, ginger, and lemon rind tied in a piece of muslin.

  3. Stir over high heat for 30 minutes.

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. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked 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

Apples
Provide the bulk of the jam and pectin-rich fruit that thickens as it cooks.
White sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it set into a thick, spreadable texture.
Lemon rind
Adds acidity and aroma, and its natural pectin supports setting.

The step that matters

Stir over high heat for 30 minutes. Sugar and apples can scorch on the bottom of the kettle if not stirred constantly. Cooking drives off water so the mixture thickens and sets as the jam cools.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, ginger, 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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