Why it works: Sugar and apricot 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 ↓
Another Way to Make Apricot Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Pare and chop the apricots into small pieces.
Sprinkle some sugar over the chopped apricots and soak the parings in cold water.
Break the stones, blanch, and pound the kernels.
Boil the kernels, shells, and parings in water until half the water is reduced.
Strain the mixture to obtain enough liquid for 3-4 tablespoons per pound of apricots.
Make the jam
Combine the strained liquid, sugar, and apricots in a preserving pan.
Mash the mixture and remove any scum.
Boil quickly until the jam is transparent.
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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Sugar + apricottop 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, body, and pectin that help the jam set.
- Pounded loaf sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps preserve it and give it a glossy set.
- Water
- Used to simmer the stones, shells, and parings so their natural pectin and flavour are extracted.
The step that matters
Boil quickly until the jam is transparent. Fast boiling evaporates water and concentrates sugar and pectin so the jam sets. Prolonged slow boiling can dull the fruit flavour and colour.
“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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