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Pineapple-apricot Marmalade

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Apricot and pineapple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 377 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pineapple-apricot Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and pit the apricots, then chop them.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, combine the apricots, sugar, chopped apricot kernels, and chopped pineapple.

  2. Cook over medium heat until it begins to boil, then continue cooking for 45 minutes.

  3. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.

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 + pineappletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 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 main fruit body, flavor, and pectin-rich pulp that gives the marmalade its structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the marmalade and helps it thicken and set as the mixture cooks down.
Pineapple
Adds tropical sweetness and acidity that brightens the apricot flavor.

The step that matters

Stirring during the cook. Sugar-heavy fruit mixtures scorch easily on the bottom of the pot, and stirring occasionally keeps the sugar and fruit from burning and sticking as the mixture thickens.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, sugar. 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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