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Dessert

Apples in Red Jelly

Apples cooked in a sweet red jelly made from sugar, lemon, water, and gelatin.

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 in Red Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the apples

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Peel the apples and remove the cores.

  3. Insert 2 cloves and as much sifted sugar as each apple can hold.

  4. Place the apples in a large pie dish without touching each other.

Bake and make the red jelly

  1. Add more sugar, the juice of 1 lemon, and 2 cups of water.

  2. Cover the dish and bake until the apples are done, checking frequently.

  3. Once cooked, transfer the apples to a glass dish.

  4. Strain the cooking liquid into a saucepan, add lemon rind, and dissolved gelatin.

  5. Boil until clear, color with cochineal, and pour over the apples.

Serve

  1. Garnish with marmalade, jelly, or whipped egg whites with sugar.

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. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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
Hold their shape while baking and provide the fruit base for the dish.
Sifted sugar
Sweetens the apples and the syrup, and helps the fruit hold its form.
Gelatine
Sets the cooking liquid into a clear, jelly-like glaze over the apples.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the syrup and jelly.
Cloves
Add a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the apples.

The step that matters

Boil until clear. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and the liquid kept below a hard boil to set properly. Over-boiling can weaken the gel and cloud the jelly, so watch the liquid closely.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Quincefits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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