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Apple, Peach and Other Fruit Butters— How to Make

A preserve made by cooking apples, peaches, and other fruits with cider and sugar until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Apple, Peach and Other Fruit Butters— How to Make

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare and core the apples.

  2. Boil down the cider until reduced.

Cook the butter

  1. Place the apples in a copper kettle.

  2. Pour enough cider over the apples to nearly cover them.

  3. Heat the mixture, adding more cider as it boils away until the desired consistency is reached.

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. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Cider + sugartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 of the fruit, breaking down into a thick, spreadable texture as they cook.
Cider
Supplies liquid and flavor; boiling it down concentrates its sweetness and taste before it is used.

The step that matters

Heating the apples in cider until the desired consistency. Apples must cook long enough to soften and thicken fully. Adding cider as it evaporates keeps the mixture from scorching while moisture leaves slowly, so the butter sets to a spreadable texture rather than stopping too thin or burning.

“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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