Name: Carrot Jam to Imitate Apricot Preserve
Ingredients: 2 tablespoonfuls of brandy; 1 lemon; 6 chopped bitter almonds; 3 pots

Why it works: Lemon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Carrot Jam to Imitate Apricot Preserve

Ingredients

2 tablespoonfuls of brandy
1 lemon
6 chopped bitter almonds
3 pots

Directions

Prepare the carrot pulp

Select young carrots; wash and scrape them clean, cut them into round pieces, put them into a saucepan with sufficient water to cover them, and let them simmer until perfectly soft; then beat them through a sieve.
Weigh the pulp, and to every lb. allow the above ingredients.

Make the jam

Put the pulp into a preserving-pan with the sugar, and let this boil for 5 minutes, stirring and skimming all the time.
When cold, add the lemon-rind and juice, almonds and brandy; mix these well with the jam; then put it into pots, which must be well covered and kept in a dry place.
Note: The brandy may be omitted, but the preserve will then not keep; with the brandy it will remain good for months.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

19Calories

1 gProtein

1 gFat

4 gCarbs

Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 2 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Almond	1 almond (1.2g)	7
Brandy	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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.

Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,655 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Brandy + almondtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,969 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Brandy + lemontop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,351 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Brandy: Helps the jam keep for months and adds a warm, aromatic flavour.
Lemon: Its juice adds acidity and its rind adds bright aroma that balances the sweetness.
Almonds: Add a nutty flavour and a slight texture to the smooth jam.

The step that matters

Adding the brandy and lemon when the jam is cold. Brandy's aroma is volatile and boils off with heat, and lemon's bright aroma fades when cooked, so these are stirred in after cooling to keep their flavour in the finished jam.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, almond):

Apricotfits better
Figfits better
Vanillafits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, almond. 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.

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Carrot Jam to Imitate Apricot Preserve