Why it works: Apricot and milk work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 826 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Apricot Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apricots
Remove the stones from the apricots.
Boil them in a syrup made with ¾ lb. of sugar and ½ pint of water until they form a thin marmalade.
Rub the mixture through a sieve.
Make the custard
Boil the milk with the remaining ¾ lb. of sugar.
Let it cool slightly.
Mix the milk with the beaten egg yolks.
Place the mixture in a jug.
Set it in boiling water, stirring continuously until it thickens without boiling.
Strain through a sieve.
Add the isinglass, previously boiled with a small amount of water.
Stir until nearly cold.
Combine and set
Mix with the apricot puree.
Pour into an oiled mold.
Refrigerate or place in a cool area until set.
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 + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together826 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,630 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 flavour and body of the cream once pureed.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the milk mixture into a smooth custard as they gently cook.
- Isinglass
- Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the cream so it holds its shape when chilled.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy base that the yolks thicken and the apricot puree is blended into.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and milk and helps form the thin marmalade.
The step that matters
Thickening the custard over boiling water. Egg yolks set at around 70°C and curdle if overheated, so the mixture must be stirred constantly over hot water rather than boiled until it thickens smoothly.
Swap the apricot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Apricotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, egg. 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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