Skip to main content
Dessert

Apricots Jellied

A gelatin set dessert with apricot halves and toasted almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Apricots Jellied

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatin

  1. Soak gelatin in cold water.

  2. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water.

  3. Add sugar, orange juice, lemon juice, and apricot liquor; strain.

Layer and set

  1. Pour mixture into a mold to a depth of ½ inch; let harden in ice water.

  2. Place apricot halves cut side down in the mixture, adding an almond in each cavity.

  3. Cover with remaining mixture; let stand to harden.

  4. Add another layer of apricots and remaining mixture; chill thoroughly.

  5. Turn onto a serving platter.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Apricot + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Apricot + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together703 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly when it cools.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and balances the sharpness of the citrus juices.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and sharpens the sweetness.
Orange juice
Adds fruity sweetness and body to the liquid that sets into jelly.
Canned apricots
Provide the fruit flavour and visible pieces suspended in the jelly.

The step that matters

Pour the first layer to a depth of ½ inch and let it harden before adding apricots. Gelatin sets only when cool, so the first layer must firm enough to hold the apricots in place. Adding fruit too early can let it float or sink, leaving an uneven layered jelly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, gelatin, sugar, orange, almond. 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.

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesOrange Cream Rice PuddingOrange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes