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 Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pare and cut the apples.
Cover with water and boil until quite soft.
Strain through a jelly bag.
Make the jelly
For each pint of juice, add 3/4 lb of sugar.
Boil for one hour.
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.
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Supply the natural pectin and acid that help the juice set into a jelly.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with pectin and acid, helps the juice gel as it cooks down.
The step that matters
Boil the juice with sugar for the full hour. Sugar and pectin only gel when enough water has evaporated and the mixture is concentrated. Cutting the boil short leaves the jelly runny.
“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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