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Dessert

Gelatine Apples

A dessert of boiled apples set in a sweet gelatinous syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Gelatine Apples

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel and core the apples, then cut them into quarters.

  2. In a kettle, combine the apples, water, sugar, sliced lemon, green ginger, mace, and cloves.

Cook the syrup

  1. Boil until the apples are tender, then remove them from the kettle.

  2. Dissolve the gelatine in a little cold water and add it to the syrup in the kettle.

  3. Boil the syrup for three minutes, then pour it over the apples.

Set

  1. Let the dish stand to cool.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the syrup into a wobbly gel that holds the apples in place as it cools.
Apples
Provide the main body and fruity flavor, softening as they are simmered until tender.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the syrup and balances the tartness of the lemon.
Lemon
Adds acidity and brightness that cut through the sweetness of the syrup.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatine in a little cold water. Gelatine must be softened in cold water first and then dissolved fully so it does not form lumps or grains. Boiling it straight into the syrup can leave it grainy, and the syrup then sets unevenly.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, lemon, ginger, 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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