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Apricot Jelly

A preserved fruit spread made from apricots, sugar, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Apricot Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Stone and cut the apricots into pieces.

  2. Prepare a syrup with 12 ounces of sugar and add the apricots.

  3. Cook until the fruit is soft.

  4. Place the cooked fruit in a cloth to extract as much juice as possible.

Make and set the jelly

  1. Combine the juice with the syrup and strain through a fine sieve.

  2. Mix in a proper amount of isinglass to thicken the mixture.

  3. Pour into jars and let set like other jellies.

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. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Apricot + gelatintop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

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, natural pectin and juice that forms the jelly.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm when cooked with the fruit.
Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that thickens the juice so it holds its shape.

The step that matters

Mix in the isinglass. Isinglass is a gelling agent, so the amount must suit the juice volume. Too little leaves the jelly runny; too much makes it stiff and rubbery. Add it to the strained mixture so it sets evenly.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, gelatin. 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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