Skip to main content
Dessert

Apricot Preserve

A sweet preserve made by layering apricots with sugar, then simmering in currant juice or wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Preserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Peel and stone the apricots.

  2. Layer the apricots with crushed sugar in a deep jar overnight.

Make the preserve

  1. The next morning, pour white currant juice or white wine over the apricots.

  2. Place the jar in a large saucepan of boiling water until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Remove from heat and let it cool.

  4. Transfer the fruit and syrup to a preserving pan.

  5. Boil gently for 40 minutes until the fruit is tender.

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).

  2. Apricot + white curranttop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Sugar + white curranttop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together59 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Apricots
Provide the fruit flavour and body of the preserve as they soften during cooking.
Crushed loaf sugar
Draws moisture from the fruit and, when cooked, sweetens and helps the preserve set.
White currant juice or white wine
Adds liquid and acidity to dissolve the sugar and help the fruit cook evenly.

The step that matters

Dissolving the sugar in the water bath. Sugar must fully dissolve before boiling, or it can crystallise and make the preserve gritty. Heating gently in the water bath avoids scorching the fruit while the sugar melts.

Swap the white currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. White currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, sugar. 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.

You might also like

Red Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipesCurrant Ice CreamCurrant Ice Cream32 recipesApricot Ice CreamApricot Ice Cream26 recipesCurrant SherbetCurrant Sherbet9 recipes