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Dessert

Apricot Cream

A chilled dessert made with apricots, gelatin, cream, and almond essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine and apricots

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in the water for 30 minutes.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the apricots, sugar, and syrup; cook until the apricots are soft.

  3. Rub the mixture through a sieve and let it cool slightly.

  4. Add the dissolved gelatine to the apricot mixture and let it cool without stiffening.

Make the cream and set

  1. In a bowl, whip the cream until stiff, then gradually add the apricot mixture and almond essence.

  2. Pour into a wetted mold and set aside to firm up.

  3. Carefully turn out the cream when set.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Syrup + creamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Double cream
Adds richness and fat, and whipped air gives the cream a light texture.
Apricots
Provide the main fruit flavour and body once cooked and sieved.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apricots.

The step that matters

Let the apricot mixture cool without stiffening before folding in the cream. Gelatine begins to set as it cools, so if the mixture thickens too far before it is folded into the whipped cream, it will form lumps and the texture will be uneven.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, sugar, almond, cream. 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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