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Dessert

Apple Cheese

Apple Cheese is a dessert made by stewing apples with sugar and cinnamon until a pulp, then boiling and setting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

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

  2. Stew the apples until slightly reduced.

Cook and set

  1. Add sugar and cinnamon to the apples.

  2. Boil for about 3 hours until the apples are a pulp.

  3. Put the mixture in pots or molds for use.

Serve

  1. Serve with custard or whipped cream.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Break down into a pulp that sets into a thick, spreadable cheese.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, with long boiling, thickens it into a firm, spreadable mass.
Powdered cinnamon
Adds warm aroma and spice to the sweetened apple pulp.

The step that matters

Boiling until the apples are a pulp. Long boiling drives off water and concentrates the sugar and pectin in the apples, so the mixture thickens enough to hold its shape. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while overcooking can scorch the sugar.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon. 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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