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Dessert

Preserved Apples

Apples preserved in sugar syrup with optional cloves and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Preserved Apples

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare, quarter and core the apples.

  2. Boil the apple parings.

Layer and soak

  1. Layer the apples and sugar in a jar alternately.

  2. Pour the water over the apples.

  3. Cover with a plate.

  4. Let stand overnight.

  5. Drain the syrup.

  6. Heat the syrup to boiling.

  7. Pour the hot syrup over the apples.

  8. Let stand for twelve hours.

  9. Repeat the heating and soaking process three times.

Finish

  1. Heat the apples thoroughly.

  2. Add whole cloves if desired.

  3. Seal in glass 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. Clove + lemontop 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. Sugar + appletop 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).

Sugar and apple 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

Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws water out of the apples, helping preserve them.
Apples
Main fruit; its firm flesh softens during heating and gives the preserve its body.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the apples.
Whole cloves
Adds warm, spicy aroma to the syrup and apples.

The step that matters

Repeat the heating and soaking process three times. Each boiling and soaking cycle draws more water out of the apples and lets the sugar syrup penetrate further, concentrating the sugar so the fruit keeps. Skipping cycles leaves the apples wetter and less preserved.

Swap the apple

The recipe marks apple as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, clove, lemon):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Applethe original

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