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 Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Place the apricots in boiling water for a short time.
Remove the apricots, extract the stones, and press the pulp through a fine sieve.
Make the jam
In a pot, clarify and boil the sugar until it reaches the 'Large Feather' stage.
Add the apricot pulp to the boiling sugar and mix well.
Continue boiling until the mixture thickens and adheres to a spoon like jelly.
Remove from heat and stir in the blanched apricot kernels.
Jar
Transfer the jam to jars and cover with brandy paper and bladder.
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 + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,630 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
- Ripe apricots
- Provide the fruit pulp that forms the body and flavour of the jam.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, as it boils down, helps it set into a thick jelly.
- Blanched apricot kernels
- Add a subtle almond-like aroma and a bit of texture to the finished jam.
The step that matters
Boiling until the jam sets. Jam thickens as water evaporates and sugar concentrates, so it must boil long enough to reach a spoon-coating, jelly-like consistency. Stopping early leaves it runny and prone to spoiling.
“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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