Name: Apricot and Fig Sauce
Ingredients: 1 pint dried apricots; 6 layer figs; 1 cup white sugar

Why it works: Apricot and fig share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 97 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Apricot and Fig Sauce

Ingredients

1 pint dried apricots
6 layer figs
1 cup white sugar

Directions

Cook the dried apricots in water until soft.
Scald and chop the layer figs, then add the chopped figs to the apricots.
Cook together for 15 minutes, adding the white sugar.
Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is well combined.

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.

Apricot + figtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together97 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,241 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,630 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried apricots: Break down when cooked to form the body and thickness of the sauce.
Layer figs: Add soft texture and natural sweetness, thickening the sauce as they cook down.
White sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the sauce keep a smooth, glossy texture.