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Apricot Marmalade

A preserve made from apricots, sugar, and apricot kernels.

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 ↓

Apricot Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Gather apricots before they are too ripe. Stone and blanch the kernels.

  2. Break the sugar into lumps and dip them in water.

  3. Pare the apricots and cut them into thin slices.

Make the marmalade

  1. Place the sugar in a preserving kettle and stir until dissolved.

  2. Heat the mixture over the fire and let it boil until it reaches a candy stage.

  3. Add the apricot slices to the sugar mixture and let it simmer until clear, but do not boil.

  4. Add the blanched kernels.

  5. Test a small amount by cooling it; if it cuts, the marmalade is done.

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 body, flavor and pectin that set the marmalade.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, when boiled, thickens the mixture as it sets.
Apricot kernels
Add a subtle almond-like aroma to the finished marmalade.

The step that matters

Simmering the apricots without boiling. Boiling the fruit hard can break it down and darken its color, while gentle simmering keeps the slices clear and intact. Testing a cooled sample shows whether the sugar and fruit have reached a set.

“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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