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Dessert

Apricot Jam

A sweet preserve made from apricots, sugar, almonds, and pits, cooked until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Apricot Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald, peel, and stone the apricots.

  2. Layer the apricots and sugar in a container and let stand overnight.

  3. Chop the almonds and apricot pits.

Cook

  1. Cook the apricots and sugar for 2 hours.

  2. Add the chopped almonds and pits 30 minutes before the mixture is done.

  3. Watch carefully to prevent scorching after adding the almonds.

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 + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  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
Provide the main fruit flavor and, with sugar, the body of the jam.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and draws out juice from the fruit, helping it set as it cooks.
Blanched almonds
Add texture and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft fruit.
Apricot pits
Contribute a subtle bitter almond aroma to the jam.

The step that matters

Watch carefully after adding the almonds and pits. Sugar-rich mixtures scorch easily on direct heat, and the sugar in the thickening jam can burn on the bottom of the pan. Stirring and watching closely prevents scorching and off flavors.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, almond. 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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