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Apples Stewed Whole

Whole apples stewed with sugar, water, cloves, cochineal, lemon juice, and red currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Apples Stewed Whole

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Peel the apples and remove the cores.

  2. Place the apples in a pie dish with sugar, water, cloves, and cochineal.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until soft.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer the apples to a dish without breaking them.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the syrup and lemon juice, and reduce over heat.

  3. Remove the cloves from the apples.

  4. Pour the syrup over the apples.

  5. Before serving, add red currant jelly to the hole at the top of each apple.

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 + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Clove + red curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together128 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  4. Lemon + red curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together309 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Apple + red curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together111 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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 dish and soften into a tender, spoonable texture when baked.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the dish and, dissolved in water, forms the syrup that flavours the apples.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the syrup.
Red currant jelly
Adds concentrated fruit sweetness and tartness to the centre of each apple.

The step that matters

Bake until soft without breaking the apples. Apples should be cooked through but kept intact. Overbaking causes the flesh to collapse, while underbaking leaves it firm, so checking for tenderness with a knife is key.

Swap the red currant

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, clove, lemon. 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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