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To Preserve Apricots

A method of preserving apricots by layering with refined sugar and simmering.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 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 ↓

To Preserve Apricots

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Gather apricots that are just ripe.

  2. Remove the stones from the apricots.

  3. Weigh the apricots.

  4. Use the same weight of refined sugar.

Macerate

  1. Sprinkle a little sugar in a china basin.

  2. Layer some apricots in the basin. Cover the apricots with more sugar.

  3. Repeat layering until all apricots are in the basin. Cover with the remaining sugar.

  4. Let the mixture sit overnight.

Cook and jar

  1. Place the basin in a bain-marie.

  2. Simmer gently.

  3. Let them sit overnight again.

  4. Simmer for a third time until the apricots become clear.

  5. Transfer the apricots to jars.

  6. Add the kernels among them.

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 and flavour that the preserve is built around.
Refined sugar
Draws moisture out of the fruit and preserves it, while adding sweetness and body to the set.

The step that matters

Simmer for a third time until the apricots become clear. Sugar must dissolve fully and the fruit must soften evenly before jarring. Stopping too early leaves the fruit firm and the syrup thin, while over-boiling can darken the fruit and make the preserve too stiff.

“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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