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 Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the juice
Place bright red apples in a preserving pan and cover with water.
Cook for 30 minutes or longer.
Strain the mixture to extract the juice.
Make the jelly
Add ¾ pound of sugar for every pint of juice.
Boil until the jelly sets.
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 acid that help the juice gel when cooked with sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set into a firm, glossy gel.
The step that matters
Boil until the jelly sets. Boiling must continue until the mixture reaches the gel point, where pectin, acid and sugar form a set. Stopping early leaves a runny jelly, while overcooking can make it stiff or cloudy.
“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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