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To Dry Apricots

This recipe dries apricots by sugaring, simmering, and air‑drying them.

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 Dry Apricots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe, split, and remove the stones from the apricots.

  2. Weigh the apricots and arrange them in a deep dish.

Make the syrup

  1. Sprinkle 14 ounces of powdered sugar over each pound of fruit.

  2. The next day, transfer the apricots to a saucepan and heat slowly.

  3. Simmer the apricots gently for 6 to 8 minutes until tender.

  4. Let the apricots sit in the syrup for 2 to 3 days.

Dry

  1. Drain the apricots and spread them out on dishes to dry.

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, which softens when simmered and then dries into a chewy texture.
Powdered sugar
Draws moisture out of the fruit and sweetens it, helping it keep while drying.

The step that matters

Simmer gently. Gentle heat softens the fruit while keeping its shape. Vigorous boiling can break the apricots apart and make them mushy.

“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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