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Preserve

Apple Butter

A thick spread made by slowly cooking apples in boiled cider, seasoned 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

Prepare the cider

  1. Pour the cider into a large brass kettle and bring it to a boil.

  2. Skim off any foam and continue adding cider until all is in the kettle.

  3. Boil down the cider to about 5 gallons.

Cook the apples

  1. Wash and drain the apples, then add them to the boiled cider.

  2. Stir constantly until the apples are soft, using a stick to prevent sticking.

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

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

  5. 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

New sweet cider
Provides the liquid that is boiled down, concentrating sugars and flavor into the base of the butter.
Apples
Break down during long cooking to form the thick, spreadable body of the butter.
Quince
Optional addition that adds aroma and flavor to the finished butter.

The step that matters

Stir constantly over a slow fire. Apple sugars and solids settle and scorch on the bottom of the kettle, which gives a burnt taste. Constant stirring and gentle heat keep the mixture even and prevent sticking during the long cook.

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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