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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pare and slice the apples very thinly.
Put the apples into a saucepan with the water and butter.
Cook and sieve
Boil until the apples are a pulp.
Rub the mixture through a coarse sieve.
Sweeten and serve
Return the pulp to the saucepan, add the sugar, and reheat thoroughly.
Pour into sauceboats and serve with ducklings.
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 + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 a pulp, forming the body of the sauce.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apples.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a richer, smoother mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Boil until the apples are a pulp. Apples must be cooked fully soft so they break down easily. Undercooked pieces will not pass through the sieve smoothly, leaving the sauce lumpy and uneven in texture.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Peachfits about as well
- 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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