Name: Apricot Sauce
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons apricot jam; 2 tablespoons hot water; 2 drops almond flavoring; ½ teaspoon sugar

Why it works: Apricot and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Apricot Sauce

Ingredients

2 tablespoons apricot jam
2 tablespoons hot water
2 drops almond flavoring
½ teaspoon sugar

Directions

In a bowl, combine apricot jam, hot water, almond flavoring, and sugar.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve until smooth.
Serve over boiled pudding.
Alternatively, substitute lime juice for almond flavoring and reduce water.

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.

Apricot + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together852 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,630 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Apricot jam: Provides the fruit flavor and sweetness that form the body of the sauce.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apricot jam.