Skip to main content
Dessert

Apricot Ice

A frozen apricot dessert made by stewing apricots, sugar, and water, then freezing and folding in whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apricot and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,630 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Apricot Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the apricot base

  1. In a saucepan, combine 2 cups of apricots, the kernels, water, and sugar, then stew for a few minutes.

  2. Pour the mixture through a strainer into a freezer, along with the syrup.

Freeze and finish

  1. Freeze the mixture like ice cream.

  2. When nearly frozen, whip the egg whites to a firm froth and mix them in, then turn the freezer rapidly for a short time longer.

  3. Stir in the whole apricots just before serving.

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

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Apricot + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,712 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to a firm froth, they add air and lightness to the frozen texture.
Sugar
Keeps the ice cream softer and sweetens the apricot base.
Apricots
Provide the main flavour and fruit body of the ice cream.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg whites to a firm froth. Egg whites trap air only when whipped to a firm foam, and they must be folded in while the mixture is nearly frozen. Adding them too early or under-whipping them leaves the ice cream dense and icy.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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

Mixed Fruit SherbetMixed Fruit Sherbet6 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes