Skip to main content
Dessert

Apricots a LA Portugaise

Apricots à la Portugaise is a sweet dessert of apricots glazed with powdered sugar and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Apricots a LA Portugaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the apricots in half and remove the stones.

  2. Place powdered sugar and a little water in a dish.

  3. Arrange the apricots on top.

Cook and glaze

  1. Heat over moderate fire.

  2. Remove from heat when the liquid is nearly gone.

  3. Sprinkle with more powdered sugar.

  4. Cover with a heat-safe lid to glaze.

Serve

  1. Serve hot on a dessert dish.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 and juices that cook down into a sticky glaze.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and melts into a syrup that coats the fruit and browns lightly.

The step that matters

Remove from heat when the liquid is nearly gone. Once the water has mostly evaporated, the sugar can quickly darken and scorch. Stopping while some liquid remains keeps the glaze glossy and lightly coloured rather than bitter and sticky-hard.

“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.

You might also like

Apricot Ice CreamApricot Ice Cream26 recipesMixed Fruit SherbetMixed Fruit Sherbet6 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipes