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Dessert

Apple Butter From Dried Apples

A sweet spread made by cooking dried apples and pumpkin with glucose, cider, syrup, sugar, gelatin, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and grape match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,659 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Apple Butter From Dried Apples

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the dried apples and pumpkin in water for 12 hours.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, combine the soaked apples and pumpkin with glucose, boiled cider, golden syrup, and New Orleans sugar.

  2. Add gelatin and mixed spice to taste.

  3. Boil gently for 1 hour, stirring constantly.

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 + grapetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

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

  3. Syrup + gelatintop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together192 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried apples
Provide the main fruit body and pectin-rich pulp that thickens the butter as it cooks.
Dried pumpkin
Adds bulk, body and a soft, earthy texture to the finished butter.
Glucose
Adds sweetness and resists crystallisation, keeping the butter smooth and spreadable.
New orleans sugar
Adds sweetness and a deep molasses-like flavour as it caramelises slowly.
Gelatin
Helps set the butter so it holds a firm, spreadable body when cooled.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 1 hour, stirring constantly. Sugar-rich fruit scorches easily on the bottom of the pot. Constant stirring at a gentle boil prevents burning and lets the mixture thicken evenly as water evaporates.

Swap the pumpkin

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

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Pumpkinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, grape, cider, syrup, sugar, gelatin. 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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