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Dessert

Apple Butter

Apple butter is a thick, sweet spread made from apples, cider, cinnamon, and cloves.

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

Reduce the cider

  1. Boil the cider down by half.

  2. Pour the boiled cider into jars.

Cook the apples

  1. In a kettle, add unboiled cider and the quartered apples.

  2. Cook the apples until they become a sauce, stirring constantly for 8 to 10 hours.

  3. Gradually add the boiled cider until all is used.

Finish and jar

  1. Once done, stir in the cinnamon and cloves.

  2. Transfer the mixture to jars.

  3. Cover the jars with paper once cool.

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

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

  3. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Cider + clovetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,683 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Break down into a thick sauce, giving the butter its body and smooth texture.
New cider
Provides the liquid that softens the apples and adds tart apple flavor.
Boiled cider
Concentrated by reduction, it adds deep sweetness and intense apple flavor.
Ground cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma.
Ground cloves
Adds strong, warm aroma and spice flavor.

The step that matters

Stir the apples constantly while they cook down. As the mixture thickens, its sugars can scorch on the bottom of the kettle. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly, prevents burning, and lets moisture evaporate evenly as the sauce concentrates.

“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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