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 Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pour 4 quarts of boiling water over 2 lbs of dried apricots.
Let the apricots stand for 48 hours.
Drain the apricots.
Make the jam
Measure the mixture into pints.
For each pint, add 1 lb of sugar.
Boil for about 30 minutes until ready.
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.
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Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Dried apricots
- Provide the fruit base, with their concentrated flavor and natural pectin setting the jam.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps it set into a thick, spreadable texture.
The step that matters
Boil for about 30 minutes until ready. Boiling concentrates the sugar and fruit while pectin releases and sets. Stopping too early leaves a runny jam, while cooking too long can scorch the sugar and dull the flavor.
“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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