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 ↓
Apple Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apples
Pare the apples.
Quarter the apples.
Core the apples.
Cover the apples with water.
Extract the juice
Boil the apples until soft.
Remove the apples.
Drain the juice into the water they were boiled in.
Boil the parings and some cores in water.
Combine the juices from both.
Make the jelly
Boil to a syrup.
Add 1 pound of sugar to 1 pint of syrup.
Boil for 15 to 20 minutes.
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 + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Provide pectin and natural fruit acid that help the juice set into a jelly.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and, as it concentrates, helps it set firm.
The step that matters
Boil to a syrup before adding sugar. The juice must be reduced to a concentrated syrup so that, once sugar is added and boiled, the pectin and sugar reach the proportions needed to gel. Too little reduction leaves a runny jelly that will not set.
“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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