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 ↓
Preserved Apricots
Ingredients
Directions
Slit the tops of the apricots and remove the stones using a small stick.
Peel the apricots and simmer them gently in a preserving pan with water until tender, but not breaking.
Carefully transfer the apricots to cold water.
The next day, drain the apricots on a coarse sieve for four to five hours.
Place the apricots in a flat earthen pan without stacking them.
Pour boiling hot clarified sugar over the apricots to cover them well.
Cover with paper and boil the syrup a little every other day for four to five times until it thickens to the consistency of cream.
After boiling the syrup twice, let the apricots simmer in the syrup for a few minutes before removing it from heat.
Transfer the apricots to pots, cover with paper soaked in brandy, and tie paper over the tops.
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
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