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Dessert

Stewed Apples

Stewed apples simmered with sugar, water, citrus juice, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,437 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Stewed Apples

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Quarter the apples and place them in a saucepan with cold water and sugar.

  2. Bring to a boil, skim well, and add the orange or lemon juice and cinnamon.

  3. Cook for 5 more minutes, stirring gently to avoid mashing the apples.

  4. Remove from heat, pour into a bowl, and cool thoroughly before serving.

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. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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

Apples
Provide the bulk of the dish and break down into soft, tender pieces when stewed.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the apples keep their flavour as they cook.
Orange or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps the apples keep their shape.

The step that matters

Stirring gently during the final cook. Apple pieces are soft and break apart under vigorous stirring, turning the stew into a purée. Gentle stirring keeps the pieces intact and the texture even.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, 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.

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