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 Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Thinly pare the apricots, break them in half, and remove the stones.
Weigh the fruit and use the same weight of loaf sugar.
Roll the sugar fine and sprinkle it over the apricots on a dish.
Let the apricots and sugar sit for 12 hours.
Cook and jar
Transfer the apricots and sugar to a preserving pan and simmer gently until clear.
Remove the apricot pieces as they become clear and skim off any scum.
Place the apricots in small jars and pour the syrup over them.
Seal the jars as you would for jelly.
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.
-
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
- Ripe apricots
- Provide the fruit flavour and the pectin-bearing body of the jam.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, at this quantity, helps preserve it and set the syrup.
The step that matters
Simmer gently until clear. Boiling hard can break the apricot pieces down and turn the syrup cloudy or dark. Gentle heat keeps the fruit whole and clear while the sugar dissolves and the syrup thickens.
“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.
More apricot jam recipes
You might also like
Apricot Ice Cream26 recipes
Mixed Fruit Sherbet6 recipes
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.