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Dessert

Jellied Baked Apples

A baked apple dessert set in a gelatinous liquid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Jellied Baked Apples

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the apples

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Pare and core the apples.

  3. Sprinkle the apples with lemon juice and sugar.

  4. Insert 1 or 2 cloves into each apple.

  5. Add a little hot water before baking.

Bake and set

  1. Bake slowly until the apples are perfectly soft, ensuring they retain their shape.

  2. Carefully place each apple in a mold slightly larger than the apple.

  3. Soften the gelatin in ½ cup cold water.

  4. Add the softened gelatin to the baking liquid.

  5. Add water and lemon juice to the liquid to make a pint.

  6. Heat the mixture.

  7. Strain the mixture.

  8. Pour the strained mixture over the apples.

  9. Chill the apples.

  10. Unmold the apples.

Serve

  1. Serve with whipped cream.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

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
Hold their shape when baked slowly and provide the main body of the dessert.
Gelatin
Sets the baking liquid so the apples hold together when chilled and unmolded.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the apples and syrup.

The step that matters

Bake slowly until the apples are perfectly soft. Gentle, slow heat softens the apple flesh through while the cell walls stay intact, so the apples keep their shape instead of collapsing into applesauce.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, clove, cream. 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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