Name: Apricots, Wet.
Ingredients: fine yellow apricots; boiling water; sugar for syrup

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Apricots, Wet.

Ingredients

fine yellow apricots
boiling water
sugar for syrup

Directions

Select fine yellow apricots that are not too ripe.
Insert a small knife near the stalk and gently work it around the stone to remove it.
Blanch the apricots in boiling water until tender, then transfer them to cold water.
Prepare a syrup and boil it to the 'Blow' stage.
Add the apricots to the syrup and boil them twice.
Remove the vessel from the heat, skim off the scum, and finish as with greengages.

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Apricot + syruptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,630 recipes

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