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 Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apples
Peel the apples, but do not core them.
Pour the cold water over the apples and place them in a preserving kettle.
Boil the apples until they are soft.
Rub the softened apples through a wire sieve to create a puree.
Make the marmalade
For each pint of puree, add half a pound of fine loaf sugar.
Boil the mixture together until the marmalade sets.
Pot and store
Pour the marmalade into pots and let it cool.
Once cool, cover the pots and store for later use.
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 fruit solids that give the marmalade body and help it set.
- Fine loaf sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, as it boils down, helps it thicken and set.
- Cold water
- Loosens the apples so they soften evenly during boiling before sieving.
The step that matters
Boil until the marmalade sets. Boiling must continue until the mixture thickens enough to set; stopping early leaves a runny result, while overcooking can make it stiff and dark.
“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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