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Apricot Sauce

A sweet sauce made from apricot jam, water, sherry, sugar, and arrowroot.

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 sherry work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 173 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Apricot Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the water, sugar, and jam. Bring to a boil.

  2. Mix the sherry and arrowroot together in a small bowl. Pour the arrowroot mixture into the saucepan and stir until it thickens.

  3. Serve the sauce warm.

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 + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together173 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Apricot + arrowroottop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together30 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Sherry + arrowroottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together129 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + arrowroottop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,073 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Apricot marmalade or jam
Provides the apricot fruit flavour and sweetness, and body as it cooks into the sauce.
Arrowroot
Thickens the liquid into a glossy sauce when heated with it.
Sherry
Adds a wine-like aroma and a light acidity that balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and works with the fruit to round out the flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the arrowroot mixture. Arrowroot thickens only when the liquid is hot, and it should be stirred in with the liquid at a simmer or boil. Stirring it in fully and then letting the sauce sit briefly lets the starch swell evenly, which prevents lumps and a thin, uneven texture.

Swap the arrowroot

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits about as well
  3. Arrowrootthe original
  4. Carrotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, sherry, sugar. 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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