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Dessert

Good Apple Sauce

A simple apple sauce made by stewing apples and mixing with butter, sugar, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,790 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Good Apple Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel, quarter, and core the apples.

  2. Place the apples in a pot with just enough water to cover them.

Make the sauce

  1. Combine ½ cup water, butter, sugar, and grated nutmeg in another pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Stir in enough paste thickening to achieve a cream-like consistency.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the cooked apples in a dish.

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 + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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
Form the bulk of the sauce, breaking down as they cook into a soft pulp.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer, smoother mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the apples.
Nutmeg
Contributes a warm, aromatic flavour.
Paste thickening
Thickens the sauce to a creamy consistency as it heats.

The step that matters

Stirring in the paste thickening. Thickeners need to be stirred in gradually while the mixture is hot so they disperse evenly. Adding it all at once forms lumps and an uneven texture. Thickeners set as they heat, so add only enough to reach the cream-like consistency.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, butter, 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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