Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓
Apple Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Quarter the apples, then cut the quarters in half.
Cook
In a saucepan, combine the sugar and water, and bring to a boil.
Add the apples to the boiling syrup without stirring, and gently shake the saucepan until the apples are cooked through.
Finish and serve
Remove the apples and add an additional tablespoon of sugar to the syrup, boiling for a little longer.
Pour the syrup over the apples and serve.
For meat, cook longer and stir until well combined, adding cinnamon if desired.
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.
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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 sauce and soften into a tender, spoonable texture when cooked.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, dissolved in water, forms the syrup the apples cook in.
The step that matters
Add the apples without stirring. Stirring while the apples cook breaks and mashes their pieces unevenly. Adding them to the boiling syrup and gently shaking the pan lets them cook through while keeping their shape.
“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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