Why it works: Apple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓
Apples with Kirsch Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apples
Prepare enough apples, peeled and quartered.
In a saucepan, combine 10 ounces of powdered sugar and 1 pint of water to make a weak syrup.
Simmer the syrup and flavor it with a liqueur-glass of kirsch.
Gently add the apples and cook until tender but not mushy.
Remove the apples with a slotted spoon and place them in a glass compote dish.
Make the syrup
In the syrup, add 2 tablespoons of apricot jam, another liqueur-glass of kirsch, 1 teaspoon of cornflour, and the juice of 1 lemon.
Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until it thickens to a thin treacle consistency.
Cool the syrup and strain it over the apples.
Chill and serve
Chill the dish thoroughly before serving.
Serve with whipped cream on top or on the side, as 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.
-
Apple + apricottop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together777 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Apricot + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,098 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Provide the fruit body that softens into the tender compote.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and gives it body as it cooks down.
- Apricot jam
- Adds fruity flavor and sweetness to the thickened syrup.
- Cornflour
- Thickens the syrup to a light, treacle-like consistency.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweet syrup and balances flavor.
The step that matters
Cooking the apples until tender but not mushy. Apples keep firming and softening as they cool, and overcooking breaks down their cell structure into a mush. Stopping at tender leaves pieces that hold their shape in the chilled compote.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, apricot, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Pearfits better
- Peachfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, apricot, cream. 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.
You might also like
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.