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Dessert

Apple Butter

Apple butter is a thick, sweetened apple preserve made by boiling cider and apples with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Apple Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cider

  1. In a large brass kettle, pour in the cider and bring it to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  2. Continue adding cider until all 10 gallons are in the kettle, then boil down to about 5 gallons.

Cook the apples

  1. Wash and drain the apples, then add them to the boiled cider.

  2. Stir constantly with a stick to prevent the apples from sticking and burning.

  3. Maintain a slow fire and boil for 1 to 2 hours after the apples begin to boil, or longer if desired.

  4. Before removing from heat, season with cinnamon and cloves to taste.

Jar and seal

  1. While hot, transfer the apple butter into well‑glazed crocks or stone jars.

  2. Allow to cool, then cover with paper soaked in apple‑jack and seal tightly.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Apple + quincetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Cider + appletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Quince + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Quince + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the bulk of the butter, breaking down into a thick, spreadable pulp as they cook.
Cider
Supplies the liquid that is reduced, concentrating its sugars and flavour into the butter.
Cinnamon and cloves
Add warm aromatic spice that flavours the finished butter.

The step that matters

Stir constantly over a slow fire. Apples are dense with sugar and settle on the bottom of the kettle, where they scorch easily. Constant stirring and low heat keep them from sticking and burning while the mixture thickens.

Swap the quince

The recipe marks quince as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, apple, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Quincethe original
  2. Pearfits about as well
  3. Plumfits less well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cider, apple, cinnamon, clove. 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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