Name: Apple Marmalade
Ingredients: 1 peck of apples; 1 gallon of water; 2 lbs. of pulp; 1 lb. of loaf sugar

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

1 peck of apples
1 gallon of water
2 lbs. of pulp
1 lb. of loaf sugar

Directions

Prepare the apples

Quarter and core the apples, leaving the skins on.
Place the apples in a preserving pan with the water.
Cook gently until the apple pulp is soft enough to be sieved.
Rub the pulp through a sieve.

Make the marmalade

For every 2 lbs. of pulp, add 1 lb. of loaf sugar.
Boil the mixture for 45 minutes, stirring frequently.
Pour into large jars and seal.

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.

Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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 the pectin and pulp that give the marmalade its body and set.
Loaf sugar: Sweetens the marmalade and helps it thicken and keep as the mixture reduces.

“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.