Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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, German
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Combine the apples, brown sugar, and cider vinegar in a large pot.
Scald the vinegar and sugar.
Pour the hot mixture over the apples and spices.
Stand and cook
Let the mixture stand for 24 hours.
Cook the mixture slowly until the apples are soft but not falling apart, about 20-30 minutes.
Add the spices 5-6 minutes before the apples are done.
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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Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,536 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,238 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Crab apples
- Make up the bulk of the sauce and soften into its body as they cook.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and a deep, caramel-like flavour as it dissolves and cooks.
- Cider vinegar
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
- Cinnamon
- Contributes warm aroma and flavour to the sauce.
- Cloves
- Contributes a strong, warm aroma that comes through in the finished sauce.
The step that matters
Add the spices 5-6 minutes before the apples are done. Volatile aromatic compounds in spices break down and evaporate with long heating, so adding them late keeps the aroma and flavour noticeable in the finished sauce.
Swap the mace
The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, apple, sugar, allspice, clove, cinnamon, cider):
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against crab, apple, sugar, allspice, clove, cinnamon, cider. 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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