Skip to main content
Dessert

Apple Jam

A preserve made from cooking apples, sugar, lemon, cinnamon, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare, core, and cut the apples into thick slices.

Cook

  1. Place the apples in a preserving pan and add the sugar, lemon rind and juice, cinnamon, and water.

  2. Cook gently until reduced to a pulp, stirring occasionally.

  3. As moisture evaporates, stir more frequently to prevent sticking.

Jar and store

  1. Pour into jars immediately, cover closely, and store in a cool, dry place.

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. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. 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

Sour cooking apples
Provide the pectin and tart flavour that give the jam its body and bright taste.
Preserving sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it set and keep by binding water.
Lemon rind and juice
Adds acidity and aroma, supporting pectin set and balancing sweetness.
Ground cinnamon
Adds warm aroma to the jam.

The step that matters

Stir more often as the jam thickens. As water evaporates, the sugar and fruit concentrate and sink toward the base of the pan, where they scorch easily. Frequent stirring keeps the mixture even and prevents a burnt taste.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, 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.

More apple jam recipes

Crab 7 See all 55 →

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes