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Dessert

Apple Butter

Apple butter is a thick, sweetened apple preserve made by reducing cider and cooking apples with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the cider

  1. Bring 10 gallons of sweet cider to a boil in a large brass kettle, skimming off any foam.

  2. If the kettle is too small, boil in batches, adding more cider as it reduces.

  3. Boil the cider until about 5 gallons remain.

Cook the apples

  1. Wash and drain the quartered apples.

  2. Add the apples to the boiling cider.

  3. Stir constantly until the apples are soft, using a stick to prevent sticking and burning.

  4. Maintain a slow fire and stir carefully at the bottom of the kettle.

  5. Boil for 1 to 2 hours after the apples begin to boil, or longer if desired.

  6. Before removing from heat, season with cinnamon and cloves to taste.

Jar and seal

  1. Pour the hot apple butter into well-glazed crocks or stone jars and let cool.

  2. Once cool, cut paper covers, soak them in apple-jack, and place them on top of the apple butter before sealing.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Apple + quincetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Cider + appletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Quince + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Quince + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet cider
Forms the liquid base, and its sugars and flavor concentrate as it reduces.
Apples
Break down into soft pulp that thickens the butter and supplies its body.
Cinnamon and cloves
Add warm aromatic flavor that deepens during the long cooking.

The step that matters

Stir constantly over a slow fire. Cider sugars and thickening apple pulp scorch and stick to the bottom of the kettle, which gives a burnt flavor and dark color. Constant stirring and low heat spread the heat evenly and keep the butter smooth.

Swap the quince

The recipe marks quince as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, apple, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Quincethe original
  2. Pearfits about as well
  3. Plumfits less well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, apple, cinnamon, clove. 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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