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Dessert

Of Apricots and Peaches

A boiled fruit dessert of apricots or peaches served with sugar and common syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Of Apricots and Peaches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Cut the apricots or peaches in half and remove the stones.

  2. Blanch them in boiling water for 2 minutes, then transfer to cold or ice water and peel immediately.

Poach the fruit

  1. In a saucepan, bring 1 pint of water to a boil.

  2. Add the apricots or peaches and some sugar; boil briefly and skim off the foam.

  3. Remove the fruit and place it on a dish.

Finish and serve

  1. Dust the fruit with sugar.

  2. Pour common syrup over the fruit.

  3. Let the fruit cool.

  4. Serve.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Apricot + syruptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. 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 or peaches
Provide the main fruit flavour and the soft, tender body of the dish.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the fruit a glossy finish.
Common syrup
Adds moisture and sweetness to the finished fruit.

The step that matters

Blanch and peel immediately. Brief boiling then cold water loosens the skin so it slips off easily. If the fruit sits too long before peeling, the skin clings and the flesh keeps cooking and softening, which can tear the fruit.

Swap the apricot

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup. 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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