Apple butter is a thick, deep-brown, intensely concentrated spread made by cooking apples or apple cider down for hours until the fruit's sugars caramelise and its pectin sets it to a smooth, spoonable paste. Despite the name it contains no butter and no dairy — the word describes only its dense, spreadable, butter-like texture. Usually spiced with cinnamon, clove and allspice and sweet-tart from the apples themselves, it is a fruit butter: a member of a small family of condiments (alongside pear and quince butters) that are cooked far further than jam, with no whole fruit or seeds left, into a dark, glossy, caramelised whole.