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 Cheese
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the pulp
Wash the apricots thoroughly and parboil them until soft.
Reduce the apricots to a pulp and pass through a sieve to remove the skins.
Cook the mixture
Add sugar to taste and a handful or two of blanched apricot stones or seeds.
Boil the mixture until it thickens sufficiently.
Set and serve
Pour into buttered molds and place in a warm oven (300°F / 150°C) to dry.
Once cold and firm, turn out of the molds.
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.
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Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Kabul apricots
- Provide the fruit pulp that gives the cheese its body and fruity flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pulp and helps it firm into a sliceable set as it thickens.
- Apricot stones or seeds
- Add a subtle almond-like aroma from the blanched kernels.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture until it thickens sufficiently. As water evaporates, the sugar and the fruit's natural pectin concentrate and set. Stopping too early leaves the cheese soft and unable to hold its shape, while overcooking makes it stiff and sticky.
“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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