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Dessert

Apple Jelly

A clear apple jelly made by simmering apples with lemon, cloves, cinnamon, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 Jelly

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel, core, and quarter the apples.

  2. Place the apples in a large jar with the lemon rind, cloves, cinnamon, and water. Tie the jar tightly.

Bake and strain

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1.5 hours.

  2. Strain the juice without pressing the apples.

Make and pot the jelly

  1. In a pan, combine the juice, sugar, and lemon juice.

  2. Boil rapidly for 45 minutes, skimming constantly.

  3. Pour into pots.

  4. Seal the next day.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the pectin and fruit flavor that let the juice set into jelly.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the jelly and helps it set as it boils down.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that supports pectin setting and brightens the flavor.

The step that matters

Strain the juice without pressing the apples. Pressing forces cloudy pulp and fine solids through the strainer, which makes the jelly cloudy. Letting the juice drip through keeps it clear.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, clove, cinnamon, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, clove, cinnamon, sugar. 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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