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To Preserve Apricots in Jelly

A method for preserving apricots in a sweet jelly using sugar, codlin liquor, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓

To Preserve Apricots in Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Pare the apricots very thin and remove the stones.

  2. Weigh an equal quantity of fine powdered sugar and strew it over the apricots.

  3. Boil the apricots gently until clear.

  4. Move the boiled apricots to a bowl.

  5. Pour the syrup over the apricots.

Make the syrup

  1. Combine the syrup with a quart of codlin liquor and a pound of fine sugar.

  2. Boil quickly until it reaches a jelly consistency.

Finish and pot

  1. Add the apricots to the syrup.

  2. Boil once and skim well.

  3. Transfer to small pots.

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 + appletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together777 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).

  2. Apricot + gingertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together341 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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 body, flavour and pectin-bearing pulp that gives the preserve its texture.
Fine powdered sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, at high concentration, helps preserve it and lets the syrup set.
Codlin liquor
Adds liquid and apple-based flavour, and its pectin helps the syrup reach a jelly set.
Sliced ginger
Adds a warm, aromatic note that complements the apricots.

The step that matters

Boiling the syrup to jelly consistency. Sugar and pectin only set when enough water has evaporated and the sugar concentration is high. Stopping too early leaves the preserve runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff, dark and sticky.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apricot, sugar, apple):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, sugar, apple. 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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