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Dessert

Apricot Cakes

A sweet dessert made by simmering apricot pulp with sugar and water, then baking until dry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA very cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the apricots

  1. Scald the apricots, peel them, and remove the stones.

  2. Beat the apricots in a mortar until they form a pulp.

Make the paste

  1. Boil the sugar with water, skimming it well.

  2. Add the apricot pulp to the sugar and simmer for 15 minutes over low heat, stirring gently.

  3. Pour the mixture into shallow glasses and let it cool.

Dry and finish

  1. Turn the glasses out onto glass plates and place them in a 300°F (150°C) oven, turning once a day until dry.

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).

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

What each ingredient does

Apricots
Provide the fruit pulp that forms the body and flavor of the cakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cakes and, as it cooks, helps the paste set firm when cooled.
Water
Dissolves the sugar so it can be boiled and skimmed smoothly.

The step that matters

Simmering the pulp with sugar. Stirring gently over low heat keeps the mixture from scorching and sticking, while the sugar thickens the pulp so it can set firm when cooled.

“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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