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Dessert

Apricots From California

A boiled apricot dessert from California, cooked with water and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 ↓

Apricots From California

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apricots

  1. Wash the apricots in cold water.

  2. Place the apricots in a stew pan and cover with cold water.

  3. Heat until scalding hot.

  4. Pour off the water.

Cook

  1. Add 1 quart of cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Cook for 15 minutes.

  4. Stir in the sugar.

  5. Let simmer for 15 minutes.

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 fruit that softens and releases flavor and juice as it cooks.
White granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the cooked fruit a syrupy body.

The step that matters

Pour off the water after scalding. Heating the apricots in water and discarding that water removes surface residue and dust before the final cooking. Skipping this step leaves the cooked fruit and syrup tasting less clean.

“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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