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Apricot Marmalade

A preserve made from apricots and sugar, cooked until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 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 Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Pour boiling water over apricots and let stand for about 4 minutes.

  2. Peel and remove the stones from the apricots.

  3. Press the apricots through a sieve.

Cook

  1. Add ¾ cup of sugar for each cup of fruit.

  2. Cook for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning.

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 main fruit flavour and body, with natural pectin that helps the marmalade thicken.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, once dissolved and concentrated by cooking, helps the marmalade set and keeps it preserved.

The step that matters

Stirring frequently while cooking. As the mixture thickens and water evaporates, the sugar and fruit concentrate and can scorch on the base of the pan. Frequent stirring spreads the heat evenly, prevents burnt flavour, and lets the marmalade reach a smooth, thickened texture.

“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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