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 the juice
Pare, core, and cut the apples into small pieces.
Place the apples in a preserving pan with the water.
Boil gently until the apples are very soft and broken.
Pass the juice through a jelly bag.
Make the jelly
For each pint of juice, add ½ pound of loaf sugar.
Set the mixture on the fire and boil for twenty minutes.
Skim off the scum as it rises.
Do not overboil, or the color will be too dark.
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
- Provide pectin and natural fruit flavor that set the jelly as the juice thickens.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set to a firm, spreadable texture.
The step that matters
Do not overboil. Prolonged or vigorous boiling darkens the sugar and fruit, turning the jelly a darker color and dulling its flavor, so the boil should be watched closely.
“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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