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 Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jam
Dissolve the sugar in a pot with a small amount of water over heat.
Add the previously scalded apricots, with skins and stones removed.
Boil until the mixture is clear.
To test, drop a little on a plate; if it sets, it's done.
Set and serve
Pour the jam into molds to cool and turn out.
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
- Apricots
- Provide the fruit flavour and the pectin-rich body that the jam sets around.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, as it concentrates on boiling, helps it set and keep.
The step that matters
Boiling until the mixture is clear and testing the set. Boiling drives off water and concentrates the sugar and fruit pectin so the jam can gel. Stopping too early leaves a runny jam, while boiling too long can make it stiff and dull in flavour. The plate test shows whether it will set as it cools.
“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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