Why it works: Spinach and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,109 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Apple Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Wash and core the apples, leaving the skins on.
Place the apples in a pot and add enough water to cover them.
Boil the apples until they are tender.
Strain the mixture through a jelly bag to extract the juice.
If desired, add spinach juice for green color or cochineal for pink color.
For quince jelly, add lemon juice to the strained juice.
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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Spinach + lemontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,109 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Lemon + quincetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together336 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Crab + spinachtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Spinach + quincetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
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Crab + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together387 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the spinach
The recipe marks spinach as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (crab, lemon, quince):
- Okrafits better
- Spinachthe original
- Broccolifits about as well
- Lettucefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against crab, lemon, quince. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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Lemon Sherbet103 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
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