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Apricot Ketchup

A sweet and tangy sauce made from apricots, vinegar, sugar, and spices, simmered and jarred.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Apricot Ketchup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apricots

  1. Wash the apricots, divide them in halves, and remove the stones.

  2. Put the apricots into a saucepan and add enough water to prevent burning.

  3. Cook for about 1 hour.

  4. Rub the mixture through a sieve or colander.

Simmer and jar

  1. Add the vinegar and the rest of the ingredients.

  2. Allow to simmer for 2 hours or more, stirring occasionally.

  3. Pour into hot, sterilized jars and seal.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Horseradish + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together654 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Horseradish + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together515 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Apricots
Provide the fruit base, pulp and natural pectin that thicken the ketchup as it reduces.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances sweetness and helps preserve the ketchup.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and deepens the color as it cooks down.
Grated horseradish
Adds pungent heat that sharpens the flavor and fades during long simmering.

The step that matters

Simmering after adding the vinegar and spices. Long simmering evaporates water and concentrates the sauce to a thick consistency. Stirring prevents the sugars and fruit solids from scorching on the bottom of the pan, which would give a burnt taste.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apricot, vinegar, sugar, horseradish, cinnamon, clove, allspice):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, vinegar, sugar, horseradish, cinnamon, clove, allspice. 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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