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 ↓
Dried Apricots
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apricots
Divide the apricots, remove the skins and stones.
Place the fruit in a bowl and sprinkle with an equal weight of pounded sugar.
Let the sugar dissolve slowly.
Syrup and drying
The next day, transfer the mixture to a preserving pan over low heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Return the apricots to the bowl and pour boiling syrup over them.
Let them sit in the syrup for 3 days.
Pour off the syrup for other uses.
Expose the apricots to gentle heat, turning them daily until dry.
Store
Store in layers with writing paper between in a tin box.
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 main fruit flavour and chewy texture once dried.
- Pounded sugar
- Draws moisture out of the fruit and sweetens it as it is preserved.
The step that matters
Letting the sugar dissolve slowly. Sugar must draw water out of the fruit gradually. Heating or rushing this step can toughen the skins and leave the fruit tough rather than tender.
“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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