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Apricots, Preserved in Brandy

Apricots preserved in brandy by simmering, sugar mixing, and sealing in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and brandy work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 513 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Apricots, Preserved in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apricots

  1. Simmer pale apricots in a covered pan of water until soft.

  2. Remove apricots and place them in a large, double-layered tablecloth, covering them tightly.

Make the brandy

  1. Mix 10 ounces of powdered sugar into each quart of uncolored French brandy until dissolved.

Jar and seal

  1. Place apricots in a glass jar and fill with brandy.

  2. Seal the jar with leather and bladder, topping up with brandy as needed to maintain level.

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 + brandytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Brandy and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Pale apricots
Softened fruit that absorbs the brandy and sugar, becoming tender and flavorful.
Uncolored french brandy
Alcohol that preserves the fruit and carries its flavor.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the brandy and helps preserve the fruit.

The step that matters

Topping up the brandy to keep the level. Fruit exposed above the liquid can spoil, since the alcohol only protects what it fully covers. Keeping the apricots submerged prevents mold and keeps the preserve stable.

Swap the apricot

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar. 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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