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Cider Apple Sauce

A sauce made by boiling sweet apples, cider, molasses, and quinces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and quince work together. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 506 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Cider Apple Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. Combine sweet apples, boiled cider, molasses, and quinces in a large pot.

  2. Boil the mixture slowly for 4 hours.

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 + quincetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Cider + quincetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together46 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Cider + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Apple + molassestop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together970 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet apples
Provide the bulk and pectin that give the sauce its body as it cooks down.
Boiled cider
Adds concentrated apple flavour and sweetness, deepening the sauce as it reduces.
Molasses
Adds dark colour, sweetness and a caramel-like depth during long cooking.
Quinces
Contribute natural pectin and a tart, fragrant flavour that helps the sauce set.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture slowly for 4 hours. Slow simmering over a long time lets water evaporate gradually, thickening the sauce and developing deep colour. Boiling too hard risks scorching the sugars on the bottom of the pot, which gives a bitter taste.

Swap the quince

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

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Grapefits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, cider, molasses. 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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