Why it works: Corn and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Apple Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
In a saucepan, combine the apples and water. Cook until the apples are soft.
Press the cooked apples through a wire sieve back into the saucepan.
Add the sugar and butter to the saucepan and mix well.
Mix the corn starch with a little cold water and stir it into the saucepan.
Cook the mixture until it boils for three minutes, then remove from heat.
Add lemon or cinnamon extract to taste.
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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Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + corntop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + corntop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together330 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sour apples
- Provide the main body and tart flavour of the sauce as they break down when cooked.
- White granulated sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the tartness of the apples.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the sauce.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the sauce as it boils, giving it a spoonable body.
The step that matters
Boiling the cornstarch mixture. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil, and it must be stirred in evenly first so no lumps form. Boiling for the stated time ensures the starch is cooked, which removes any raw starchy taste and sets the texture.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, butter, corn):
- Vanillafits better
- Pearfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, butter, corn. 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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