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Dried Apple Sauce

A sauce made by simmering dried apples and raisins with water, lemon, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,920 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Dried Apple Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer the fruit

  1. Combine dried apples and raisins in a crock.

  2. Add plenty of water and place on the back of the stove.

  3. Let it boil slowly for the entire day.

Finish the sauce

  1. When almost done, add the sliced lemon and sugar.

  2. Add hot water as needed to maintain consistency.

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 + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  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

Dried apples
Break down during the long simmer to form the sauce's body and texture.
Raisins
Plump and soften, adding sweetness and thickness to the sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the fruit.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Add hot water as needed. Cold water cools the simmer and can stall the softening of the fruit, while hot water keeps it cooking steadily. Watching the consistency prevents the sauce from scorching on the bottom of the pot or turning too thick.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, raisin, 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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