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Mint Jelly

Mint jelly made from apples, mint leaves, water, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Mint Jelly

Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Mint Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Wipe, quarter, core without peeling, and slice the apples.

  2. Cover the apples with cold water and add the mint leaves.

  3. Heat slowly and simmer until the apples fall to a pulp.

  4. Turn the mixture into a jelly bag and let it drip.

  5. Measure the clear juice and use an equal amount of granulated sugar.

Make the jelly

  1. Spread the sugar on shallow pans and heat in a warm oven, stirring occasionally.

  2. Heat the juice and boil rapidly for 20 minutes.

  3. Add the hot sugar and stir until it dissolves.

  4. Boil once more, then pour into tumblers warmed in hot water.

  5. Once cool, cover immediately.

  6. Optionally, add a little green food coloring for tint.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Apple + minttop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together203 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Mint + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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
Their natural pectin and acid help the juice set into a jelly.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the jelly and, with boiling, helps it thicken and set.
Mint leaves
Add the mint aroma that flavors the finished jelly.

The step that matters

Boil the juice rapidly for 20 minutes. Rapid boiling concentrates the juice and activates the pectin from the apples. Too little boiling leaves the jelly runny, while the sugar must then be fully dissolved before the final boil so it sets evenly.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar. 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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