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 Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apples
Peel and core the apples.
Boil the apples in clear water until soft enough to mash.
Strain the water from the apples.
Make the marmalade
For every pint of apples, add 1 pound of sugar.
Boil the syrup and skim it.
Add the apples to the syrup and cook until thick.
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 the bulk and pectin that help the marmalade thicken as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and helps it set into a thick, spreadable texture.
The step that matters
Cook until thick. Apples must cook long enough for the sugar to concentrate and the pectin to gel; stopping early leaves a runny marmalade, while overcooking can scorch the sugar.
“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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