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Dessert

To Stew Apples Whole

Stewed apples cooked whole in a sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

To Stew Apples Whole

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and core the apples.

Make the syrup and cook

  1. In a saucepan, combine 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar to make a syrup.

  2. Bring the syrup to a boil.

  3. Carefully add the apples to the boiling syrup.

  4. Cook the apples until they are tender.

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 + 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
Fruit that softens as it cooks in the syrup, becoming tender and juicy.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and, dissolved in water, forms the syrup that cooks the apples.

The step that matters

Adding the apples to the boiling syrup. Boiling syrup is very hot and can spatter, so the apples should be lowered in gently. Cooking them in simmering syrup until tender lets heat penetrate evenly and softens the fruit without breaking it apart.

“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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