Name: Apple Water
Ingredients: 4 apples; 1 quart boiling water; sugar (to taste)

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 Water

Ingredients

4 apples
1 quart boiling water
sugar (to taste)

Directions

Steep

Slice the apples and place them in a jug.
Pour the boiling water over the apples.
Cover the jug tightly and let it cool.

Serve

Once cold, the drink is ready to use.
Add sugar to taste if desired.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 main fruit flavor and aroma as they steep in the water.
Boiling water: Extracts flavor and aroma compounds from the sliced apples into the liquid.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the tart apple flavor, added to taste.

“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.