Skip to main content
Dessert

Apricots in Brandy

Preserved apricots in syrup and brandy, cooled and stored in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apricot and brandy work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 513 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Apricots in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apricots

  1. Scald the apricots and set them aside in a pan with their syrup until the next day.

  2. Thinly peel the apricots if desired, or preserve them whole.

Make the syrup

  1. Boil down the syrup to a sugar-like consistency.

  2. Add an equal amount of very pale or white brandy to the syrup and let it cool nearly to room temperature.

Preserve and store

  1. Pour the cooled syrup over the apricots.

  2. Cork the jars well, cover with bladder, and store in a cool place.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Syrup + brandytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together561 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Apricots
Form the fruit, which holds its shape and flavour once scalded and preserved in syrup.
Syrup
Sweetens the fruit and, when boiled down, thickens into a sugar-like coating that helps preserve it.
Very pale or white brandy
Adds alcohol that helps preserve the fruit and contributes aroma, and is added in equal amount to the syrup.

The step that matters

Let the syrup cool nearly to room temperature before pouring it over the apricots. Boiling down the syrup concentrates its sugar, and adding brandy to hot syrup would drive off alcohol and aroma. Cooling it first keeps the brandy's character and avoids heat damaging the soft fruit.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Apricotthe original
  3. Pearfits less well
  4. Raisinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, 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.

You might also like

Brandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipesApricot Ice CreamApricot Ice Cream26 recipesBrandy CreamBrandy Cream21 recipesBrandy PuddingBrandy Pudding13 recipes