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Dessert

Fruit Sauce

A sweet fruit sauce made from dates, figs, corn syrup, and water, finished with butter, salt, sugar, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Dates and fig work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Fruit Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Place dates, figs, corn syrup, and water in a saucepan and simmer until the fruit is soft.

  2. Remove from heat and strain through a colander.

  3. Stir in melted butter, salt, and sugar.

  4. Add enough sweet cream or top milk to achieve the desired thickness.

Serve

  1. Serve over any pudding that requires sauce.

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. Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Fig + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Dates
Break down while simmering to give the sauce its body and natural sweetness.
Figs
Soften into the simmered fruit, adding body and a deeper fruity flavour.
Corn syrup
Adds sweetness and a smooth, glossy texture that resists crystallising.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished sauce.
Sweet cream or top milk
Thins the sauce and adjusts it to the desired thickness while adding richness.

The step that matters

Simmering the fruit until soft. If the dates and figs are not cooked until fully soft, the sauce stays grainy and does not strain smoothly. Soft fruit breaks down into a uniform purée that gives the sauce its body.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, fig, corn, syrup, sugar, cream. 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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