Why it works: Apricot and brandy work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 513 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Apricot Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
If using dry apricots, soak them in a little boiling water.
Mash the apricots into a pulp.
Combine the apricot pulp and powdered sugar in a preserving kettle.
Cook and seal
Boil the mixture hard for about 20 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking.
Optional: Place blanched apricot kernels on top of the jars before sealing.
Seal the jars with brandy paper and tie closely.
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 + brandytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together513 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,630 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 flesh, pectin and flavour that form the body of the jam.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and keep as it cooks down.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture hard while stirring often. Sugar and fruit can scorch on the bottom of the kettle during a hard boil. Frequent stirring spreads the heat evenly and prevents sticking and burnt flavour.
Swap the apricot
The recipe marks apricot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotthe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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