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Dessert

Apple Paste

A preserve made from apples, sugar, marmalade, ginger, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,424 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Apple Paste

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and cut the apples, then weigh them.

  2. Add an equal quantity of white sugar and place the apples in a jar.

Cook

  1. Boil until the apples are soft.

  2. Boil the sugar with a breakfast cupful of water to make a syrup.

  3. Add the apples, marmalade, and grated ginger, then simmer for 10 minutes.

Shape and serve

  1. Wet the shapes with spirits and dish them out.

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 + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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
Provide the bulk and natural pectin that lets the paste hold its shape when cooled.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and preserves the paste, helping it set firm and keep well.
Marmalade
Adds citrus acidity and flavour, which supports setting and gives a bright taste.
Grated ginger
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour that contrasts with the sweetness of the apples.

The step that matters

Simmering the apple, sugar and marmalade mixture. The paste must cook long enough for the sugar to concentrate and the apple pectin to set once cooled. Undercooking leaves it soft and runny, while overcooking can scorch the sugar and darken the flavour.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, ginger. 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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