Why it works: Apple and quince work together. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 506 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Apple Butter
Ingredients
Directions
Reduce the cider
Pour sweet cider into a pot and boil it down to half its original quantity.
Add enough apples to the pot to keep them moist with the cider.
Cook the apple butter
Stew the mixture until it reaches the consistency of soft marmalade and a dark brown color, stirring frequently.
For added flavor, include one fourth as many quinces as apples.
Keep the apple butter for up to a year if boiled well.
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 + quincetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together506 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Cider + appletop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,238 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Cider + quincetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together46 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet cider
- Provides the liquid that cooks down into a concentrated, sweet base for the butter.
- Juicy apples
- Break down during stewing to form the smooth, thick body of the butter.
- Quinces
- Add extra flavor and help the butter set thick when used in the stated ratio.
The step that matters
Stew until thick and dark. Long, frequent stirring over gentle heat prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot and lets moisture evaporate evenly. Stopping too early leaves the butter thin and pale, while overcooking can make it stick and burn.
Swap the quince
The recipe marks quince as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cider, apple):
- Pearfits better
- Plumfits better
- Grapefits about as well
- Quincethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cider, apple. 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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