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Dessert

Apple Butter

Apple butter is a thickened apple and cider mixture flavored with allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Apple Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel, quarter, and core the apples.

  2. Boil down the cider until it reduces to half its volume.

Cook and store

  1. Add the prepared apples to the cider and stir continuously to prevent sticking.

  2. Cook until the mixture thickens to the consistency of hasty pudding.

  3. Stir in pulverized allspice and transfer to pots for storage.

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 + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Apple + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together998 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Cider + allspicetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together873 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet apples
Provides the bulk and body that cooks down into a thick, spreadable pulp.
Clear new cider
Supplies the liquid that reduces, concentrating its sweetness and fruit flavor into the spread.
Allspice
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the finished butter.

The step that matters

Stir continuously while adding the apples and cooking. The fruit sugars in a thick, reduced mixture scorch quickly on the bottom of the pot. Constant stirring keeps heat moving evenly and prevents burnt flavor and sticking as the mixture thickens.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, cider. 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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