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Dessert

Apricot Jam

A jam 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

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

  2. Place them in a large pot and mash them thoroughly.

  3. Heat the mashed apricots over medium heat, mashing continuously.

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

Cook the jam

  1. Return the strained apricots to the pot and bring to a boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

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

Pot and store

  1. Once cooked, pour the jam into brown pans.

  2. When cool, spread apple jelly on 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

Apricots
Provide the fruit base, flavour and body that the jam is built from.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and thickens the jam while helping it keep.

The step that matters

Boiling with the sugar. Once the powdered sugar is added, the jam must be stirred continuously, because sugar and fruit concentrate and can scorch on the bottom of the pot, giving a burnt 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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