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 ↓
Apple Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Wash and quarter the apples, then place them in an enameled kettle or bright tin pan.
Cover the apples with cold water and cook until soft and the juice thickens.
Strain the mixture through flannel.
Make the jelly
Preheat the sugar in the oven without closing the door to prevent burning.
Bring the juice to a boil and skim until clear.
Add the heated sugar and boil briskly until it jellies, about 30 minutes.
Pour the jelly into glasses before it cools.
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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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Tart apples
- Provide natural pectin and acidity that help the juice set into jelly.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set by binding with pectin and water.
The step that matters
Add the heated sugar and boil briskly until it jellies. Boiling briskly brings the pectin, acid and sugar to the concentration needed to gel. Heated sugar dissolves quickly and keeps the boil from dropping, so the jelly sets rather than staying syrupy.
“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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