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 ↓
Green Apricots, Wet
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apricots
Place green apricots in a bag with a generous amount of coarse sea salt and shake to remove the silkiness from the skin.
Remove the apricots from the bag.
Place the apricots in a large pan with water over low heat to scald until soft.
Drain the apricots through a sieve.
Make the syrup
Prepare a flat preserving pan and pour a thin layer of boiling syrup into it.
Add the apricots to the syrup, ensuring they are not crowded and are fully covered.
Boil the syrup with the apricots for about 15 minutes.
Remove the pan and place the apricots in a flat dish covered with paper to keep out dust.
Boil and jar
The next day, boil the apricots for half an hour.
If they look good, drain the syrup through a sieve.
Boil the syrup for 20 minutes.
Return the apricots to the syrup and boil for 2-3 minutes.
Transfer the apricots back to the flat dish, keeping them covered with syrup as it boils.
Once the syrup thickens and the apricots look good, place them in jars.
Cover with a layer of apple jelly when cool.
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.
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Apricot + appletop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together777 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
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Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Apricot + walnuttop 14% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together180 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Walnut + appletop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,051 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Apricot + syruptop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Green apricots
- Provide the fruit that softens and absorbs the syrup to become preserved.
- Sugar
- Forms the syrup that preserves the fruit and gives it sweetness.
- Apple jelly
- Forms a glossy layer over the finished apricots.
The step that matters
Keeping the apricots covered with syrup. Fruit exposed to air can dry out and darken, and crowding stops the syrup from penetrating evenly. Keeping every piece submerged and not overcrowded helps the sugar work evenly through the fruit.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apricot, sugar, syrup, apple):
- Chestnutfits better
- Hazelnutfits better
- Almondfits better
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, sugar, syrup, apple. 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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