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Dessert

Marmalade of Apples

A preserve made by cooking apples with sugar, water, lemon zest, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Marmalade of Apples

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Scald the apples until they can be pulped from the core.

Make the syrup

  1. Measure an equal amount of sugar as apples.

  2. Dampen the sugar with water.

  3. Boil the sugar mixture, skimming it well, until it becomes a thick syrup.

Cook and finish

  1. Combine the syrup with the pulped apples.

  2. Boil over high heat for about 15 minutes.

  3. Add the lemon zest and 6 cloves.

  4. Remove the cloves before filling your jars.

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 + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 pulp and body that gives the marmalade its thick, spreadable texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, when boiled into syrup, helps it set as it thickens.
Lemon zest
Adds bright aroma and a touch of acidity that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil the sugar mixture until a thick syrup forms. Skimming well removes impurities that would cloud the marmalade, and the syrup must be thick enough before combining, since sugar concentration drives setting once the fruit is added.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Quincefits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, clove. 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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