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Dessert

Apricot Jam

A sweet preserve made from apricots, powdered sugar, apple jelly, and brandy papers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓

Apricot Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Cut the apricots into pieces and remove the stones.

  2. Place them in a large copper preserving pan and mash them.

  3. Heat the mashed apricots over the fire, mashing continuously.

  4. Pass the mixture through a colander, using a small pestle to force it through.

Cook the jam

  1. Return the strained apricot mixture to the fire and let it boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

  2. Add 15 ounces of powdered sugar for every pound of apricots and boil for another 30 minutes, stirring continuously to prevent burning.

Pot and store

  1. Pour the jam into brown pans and let it cool.

  2. Once cool, spread apple jelly over the top and cover with brandy papers.

  3. Let the jars stand for two days before storing.

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 + appletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together777 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

  5. Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

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

Sugar and apple barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Ripest apricots
Provide the fruit flavor, natural pectin and body that form the jam.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and keep as it cooks down.
Apple jelly
Adds a glossy layer on top of the jam and extra setting power.

The step that matters

Stirring while the sugar boils. Sugar-rich fruit sitting on the bottom of a hot pan scorches quickly. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly and prevents burning, which would give the jam a bitter, caramelized taste.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, 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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