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Dessert

Apple Sauce for Geese, Pork, Etc

A fruit sauce made from apples, sugar, butter, and water, suitable for serving with geese, pork, and other meats.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,706 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Apple Sauce for Geese, Pork, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel, core, and quarter the apples, then place them in cold water to keep them from browning.

Cook and finish

  1. In a saucepan, add the apples and enough water to moisten them, then boil until soft enough to mash.

  2. Mash the apples, then mix in sugar and butter to taste.

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 + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. 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

Apples
Break down into soft pulp that forms the body of the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel to the mashed apples.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the tartness of the apples.

The step that matters

Boil until soft enough to mash. Apples must be fully softened before mashing, because undercooked pieces stay firm and give a lumpy texture. Adding just enough water prevents scorching while the apples cook.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Peachfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter. 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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