Name: To Stew Apples Foe Tarts
Ingredients: apples; piece of lemon peel; a little water; 1 stick of cinnamon; sifted sugar to taste; 2 teaspoons syrup of quinces; ½ tablespoon syrup of cloves; ¼ pound pineapple jam

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 ↓

To Stew Apples Foe Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

Pare, core, and cut the apples into quarters.
Place the apples in a saucepan with lemon peel, a little water, and cinnamon.

Cook and strain

Cover and cook over medium heat until the apples dissolve.
Sweeten with sifted sugar and stir in syrup of quinces.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve and let it cool before using.

Finish for a finer tart

For a finer tart, use golden pippins and add syrup of cloves and pineapple jam after sieving.

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 + quincetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together506 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Quince + clovetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together164 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + quincetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together199 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Apple + pineappletop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together530 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples: Break down into a soft pulp that forms the body of the filling.
Sifted sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apples.
Syrup of quinces: Adds fruity flavour and aroma to the stewed apples.
Pineapple jam: Adds sweetness and concentrated fruit flavour to the finished filling.

The step that matters

Cook until the apples dissolve, then sieve. Cooking softens the apple cell walls so they collapse into a smooth pulp. Rubbing it through a fine sieve removes skins and seeds, giving the smooth texture a tart filling needs.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, cinnamon, sugar, syrup, quince, clove, pineapple):

Vanillafits better
Pearfits better
Figfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, cinnamon, sugar, syrup, quince, clove, pineapple. 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.

Apple Pudding256 recipes

Lemon Cake228 recipes

Lemon Ice147 recipes

Quince Jelly131 recipes

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To Stew Apples Foe Tarts