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Apricots in Brandy

Apricots preserved in brandy and syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Spirit and syrup work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 141 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Apricots in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apricots

  1. Prick the apricots with copper pins.

  2. Soak the apricots in alum water.

  3. Blanch the apricots as for candying.

  4. Return the apricots to the alum water.

  5. Drain the apricots.

  6. Dry the apricots.

  7. Place the apricots in stone jars.

Make the syrup and steep

  1. Pour hot boiling syrup over the apricots.

  2. After 24 hours, drain the syrup.

  3. Reboil the syrup at 28° Beaume.

  4. Pour the syrup over the apricots.

  5. Three days later, drain the syrup again.

  6. Reboil the syrup at 30° Beaume.

  7. Four days later, bottle the apricots.

Finish in liquor

  1. Cover the apricots with liquor.

  2. Seal the jars with paper and twine.

  3. After 10 days, refill the jars with liquor.

  4. Seal the jars airtight.

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. Spirit + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together141 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Apricot + spirittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together38 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Apricot + syruptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together451 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

Apricots
Provide the fruit that is preserved and flavoured by the syrup and spirit.
Alum
Firms the fruit flesh so it keeps its shape through soaking and syruping.
Syrup
Sweetens the fruit and, at higher density, draws moisture out to preserve it.
Double proof spirit
Acts as the preserving liquor that keeps the fruit stable and adds alcohol flavour.

The step that matters

Reboiling the syrup at increasing density. Each reboil at a higher Beaume reading concentrates the sugar further, so the syrup draws more water out of the fruit and helps preserve it. Skipping or rushing the stages weakens that preservation.

Swap the apricot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spirit, syrup):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits about as well
  3. Apricotthe original
  4. Applefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against spirit, syrup. 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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