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Dessert

Apricots in Brandy

Preserved apricots soaked in a sugar syrup and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Apricots in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apricots

  1. Choose slightly unripe apricots and remove the down.

  2. Prick each apricot to the stone.

Make the syrup

  1. Combine ½ pound sugar with thin clarified syrup.

  2. Add the apricots.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Let the mixture sit in the syrup overnight.

Jar and seal

  1. Drain the apricots and place them in jars.

  2. Boil the syrup.

  3. Skim the boiled syrup.

  4. Mix the syrup with double the amount of brandy.

  5. Strain the mixture through a jelly bag.

  6. Pour the strained mixture over the apricots in jars.

  7. Seal jars with bladders.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Apricot + brandytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Apricot + syruptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Apricots
Provide the fruit that softens and becomes tender while steeping in the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, in the syrup, helps preserve it by drawing out water.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that gives flavor and helps preserve the fruit in the jars.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup and skim it before adding brandy. Boiling concentrates the syrup and skimming removes foam and impurities that could spoil the preserve. Brandy should be added only after the syrup has cooled, because high heat drives off its alcohol and aroma.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup, brandy. 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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