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 Puffs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apricots
Drain the apricots thoroughly.
Roll each apricot in castor sugar.
Dip each apricot into stiff batter.
Fry
Drop them into fast boiling lard.
Fry until nicely brown, about a few minutes.
Lift the fried apricots out of the lard.
Drain them well.
Serve
Serve piled high on a napkin with sifted sugar sprinkled over them.
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 filling and a soft, juicy centre inside the crisp coating.
- Batter
- Forms a stiff coating that fries into a crisp, golden shell around the fruit.
- Castor sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the outside brown as it fries.
- Frying fat
- Transfers heat quickly so the batter cooks crisp and browns evenly.
The step that matters
Drop them into fast boiling lard. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping. Fat that is too hot browns the outside before the batter sets, so keep the lard at a steady, vigorous boil.
“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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