Name: Apricots
Ingredients: Apricots; Boiling water; Boiling syrup; Apple jelly; Brandy paper

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 ↓

Apricots

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the apricots in half and peel them neatly.
In a pot, bring water to a boil and prepare another pot with boiling syrup.
Place a few apricots at a time in the boiling water until slightly tender, then drain them.
Transfer the apricots to the boiling syrup and let them boil gently for 10 minutes.
Place the apricots in a flat-bottomed earthen pan and cover with paper.
Boil the syrup a little longer, then pour it over the apricots.
The next day, boil the apricots for 5 minutes and carefully return them to the pan.
Boil the syrup for the next 4 or 5 days and pour it over the apricots each time.
On the sixth day, place the apricots in pots and top with apple jelly and brandy paper.
Ensure the pots are dry and the apricots are not overly ripe.

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.

Apricot + appletop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together777 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
Apricot + brandytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together513 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,291 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apricot + syruptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Syrup + brandytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together561 recipes