Dried Apricots
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Take apricots that have reached full growth and colour but before they soften; weigh and wipe them lightly.
Make a small incision across the top of each apricot, pass the point of a knife through the stalk end, and gently push out the stones without breaking the fruit.
Put the apricots into a preserving pan with enough cold water to float them easily.
Place the pan over a moderate fire; when it begins to boil, if the apricots are quite tender, lift them out and throw them into more cold water; otherwise, simmer them until they are tender.
Make the syrup and soak
Take the same weight of sugar as the fruit before it was stoned, and boil it for ten minutes with a quart of water.
Skim the syrup carefully, throw in the apricots (which should previously be well drained on a soft cloth or on a sieve), simmer them for one minute, and set them in the syrup until the following day.
Drain the apricots from the syrup, boil the syrup for ten minutes, and pour it over the apricots immediately after removing them from the fire.
Repeat and finish
After forty‑eight hours, repeat the process: boil the syrup for ten minutes, add the apricots, and simmer them for two to four minutes, or until they look clear.
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
What each ingredient does
- Apricots (in the method)
- Form the main body of the fruit, which softens and turns translucent as it absorbs syrup.
- Sugar (in the method)
- Sweetens the fruit and, as a concentrated syrup, draws water out to help preserve it.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar into syrup and gently cooks the apricots to tenderness.
The step that matters
Simmering the apricots until they look clear. Overcooking breaks the fruit down, while undercooking leaves it firm. Sugar slowly replaces water in the fruit, so the apricots look clear and translucent when it is well absorbed.
“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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