Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Boiled Cider Apple Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pare, quarter, and core the apples.
In a gallon porcelain kettle, combine the apples and boiled cider.
Cook
Cover the apples with a plate and bring to a boil.
Boil steadily but not rapidly until the apples are thoroughly cooked, testing with a fork.
Do not remove the plate until the apples are done to prevent burning.
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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Apple + cidertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,238 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Form the bulk of the sauce, breaking down into soft, spoonable pulp as they cook.
- Boiled cider
- Adds concentrated apple sweetness and deep apple flavour, and moisture for the apples to cook in.
The step that matters
Boil steadily, not rapidly, with the plate kept on. A rapid boil can scorch the sugars in the boiled cider against the kettle and reduce too fast, while the covering plate traps steam so the apples cook through evenly without burning.
“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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