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Dessert

Apple Jam

Apple jam made with sliced apples, lemon juice, brown sugar, ginger, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the sliced apples, lemon juice, brown sugar, grated ginger, and cloves in a large pot.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 24 hours.

Cook

  1. After 24 hours, boil the mixture until the apple slices turn amber in color.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  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 bulk and pectin that help the jam thicken as it cooks.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavour and supports pectin setting.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and browns to the amber colour as it cooks.
Green ginger
Adds a warm, spicy aroma.
Cloves
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling until amber. Sugar darkens and can scorch quickly on the bottom of a pot once it gets hot. Stirring and watching the colour helps prevent burnt flavour while the apples cook through.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, ginger, clove. 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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