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Apricot Sauce

A sauce made from dried apricots, butter, sugar, cinnamon, and cornstarch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Apricot Sauce

Why it works: Apricot and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 618 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Apricot Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the dried apricots thoroughly and cut them into small pieces.

  2. Soak the apricots overnight.

Cook and finish

  1. Simmer the soaked apricots slowly until soft.

  2. Run the apricots through a colander and add a piece of fresh butter while warm.

  3. Serve with French toast, corn bread, corn cakes, steamed puddings, or omelet.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Apricot + cinnamontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together618 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Apricot + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 apricots
Provide the main fruit flavor and body of the sauce once softened and pureed.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel to the warm sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer the soaked apricots slowly until soft. Slow simmering softens the fruit evenly without scorching the sugars, so the apricots break down smoothly when pushed through a colander. Rushing with high heat can cause sticking and an uneven, grainy texture.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, cinnamon. 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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