Name: Apple Butter
Ingredients: good sweet apples; pure sweet cider; 1 tablespoon cinnamon; ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Apple Butter

Ingredients

good sweet apples
pure sweet cider
1 tablespoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves

Directions

Pare and core the apples.
Boil the apples with cider until the cider is reduced by half or until the mixture becomes a rich dark pulp, stirring constantly.
If desired, add 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon of ground cloves when the mixture is hot and well combined.

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,238 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,774 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Cider + clovetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,683 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).