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 Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Make the paste
Place the ripe apricots in a preserving pan with a little sugar.
Heat them gently at the side of the fire until they reduce to a paste.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.
Cook and dry
Add ½ lb of sugar for every 1 lb of fruit and return to the fire.
Boil for 10 minutes.
Spread the mixture on trays to dry.
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
- Ripe apricots
- Provide the fruit base, flavour and body that reduces into the paste.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps preserve the paste and give it a firm, sticky set.
The step that matters
Heat the apricots gently until they reduce. Gentle heat softens the fruit and drives off water slowly, so it thickens into a paste without scorching. Sugar-rich fruit burns easily on the bottom of a pan if the heat is too high.
“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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