Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Apple Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apples
Peel the apples, cut them in half, remove the core, and chop into small pieces.
Place the apples in a saucepan with 3 ounces of sugar and ½ cup of water.
Wash the lemon and grate the yellow rind over the apples, avoiding the bitter white part.
Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice through a strainer onto the apples.
Cook and strain
Bring the saucepan to a boil and cook the apples until tender, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
In a small saucepan, dissolve 1 ounce of gelatine in ½ cup of cold water by placing it near the fire.
Once the apples are cooked to a pulp, strain them through a fine sieve into a bowl using a wooden spoon.
Stir the dissolved gelatine into the apple mixture until smooth, ensuring there are no lumps.
Color and mold
If desired, add ½ teaspoon of cochineal to color part of the mixture.
Rinse a 1½ pint mold with boiling water, then with cold water.
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 + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Provide the fruit flavour and the pulp that gives the jelly its body.
- Gelatine
- Sets the strained juice into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
- Lump sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the jelly its clear, set texture.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweetness of the apples.
The step that matters
Stirring the gelatine into the apple mixture. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and evenly mixed before setting; lumps left in the mixture will not disperse once it cools and sets, leaving a grainy texture.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar):
- Pearfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Lemonthe 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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