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Dessert

Apple Butter

Apple butter is a thick, sweetened apple preserve made by boiling cider and apples with cinnamon and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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

Boil the cider

  1. Pour the cider into a large kettle and bring it to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  2. As the cider boils down, keep adding more until all 10 gallons are in the kettle.

  3. Boil the cider down to about 5 gallons.

Cook the apples

  1. Wash and drain the apples, then add them to the boiled cider.

  2. Stir constantly until the apples are soft, using a stick to prevent sticking.

  3. Maintain a slow fire and stir carefully at the bottom of the kettle.

  4. Boil for 1 to 2 hours after the apples start boiling, or longer if desired.

  5. Before removing from heat, season with cinnamon and cloves to taste.

Jar and seal

  1. Pour the hot apple butter into well-glazed crocks or stone jars and let cool.

  2. Cut paper covers.

  3. Soak the covers in apple-jack.

  4. Place the covers on top of the apple butter, sealing tightly.

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

New sweet cider
Forms the liquid base that is boiled down to concentrate its sugars and flavor.
Apples
Break down during long cooking to give the butter its thick, spreadable body.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until the apples are soft. Apple sugars scorch easily on the bottom of a kettle, and the thick mixture sticks and burns. Steady stirring at a slow fire keeps the heat even and prevents a burnt taste.

“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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