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Apricots Xn Brandt

A preserve of apricots steeped in sugar and pale brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and brandy work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 513 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Apricots Xn Brandt

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Weigh equal amounts of loaf sugar and apricots.

  2. Scald the apricots and remove the skin.

  3. Clarify and boil the sugar.

Steep and bottle

  1. Add the apricots to the sugar.

  2. Let them sit for 2-3 days.

  3. Transfer the apricots to jars.

  4. Mix the syrup with an equal amount of pale brandy.

  5. Pour the mixture over the apricots.

  6. Seal the jars tightly.

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. Apricot + brandytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Sugar + apricottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Apricots
Provide the fruit flavour and soft texture that the syrup and brandy are poured over.
Loaf sugar
Forms a thick syrup that draws moisture out of the fruit and adds sweetness.
Pale brandy
Adds aroma and alcohol, which helps preserve the fruit in the syrup.

The step that matters

Seal the jars tightly. A tight seal keeps air out and stops the brandy from evaporating, which helps the fruit keep its flavour and avoids spoilage.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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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