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Dessert

Apricots a l'Empress

A gelatin dessert made with apricots, sugar, gelatin, almond essence, brandy, and whipped cream or custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Apricots a l'Empress

Ingredients

Directions

Make the apricot base

  1. Cook apricots with sugar and a little water until soft.

  2. Pass the mixture through a sieve.

  3. Dissolve gelatin in hot water.

  4. Mix the dissolved gelatin into the apricot puree.

  5. Flavor the mixture with almond essence.

  6. Add chopped almonds and brandy to the mixture.

  7. Pour a thin layer of the mixture onto a flat dish.

  8. Let the layer set.

  9. Cut out shapes with a fancy cutter.

Line and fill the mould

  1. Line a plain mould with jelly.

  2. Arrange the shapes inside the mould.

  3. Prepare flavored jelly.

  4. Reduce the flavored jelly by boiling.

  5. Mix the reduced jelly with whipped cream or custard and apricot pulp.

  6. Pour this mixture into the mould to fill it.

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 + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Apricot + brandytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apricots
Provide the main fruit flavor and the puree that forms the set body.
Gelatine
Sets the apricot puree so it holds its shape when cut and unmoulded.
Whipped cream or rich custard
Adds richness and a soft, creamy texture to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the apricot puree and balances its tartness.
Brandy
Adds a warm, aromatic flavor to the apricot layer.

The step that matters

Let the layer set. Gelatin needs to be fully dissolved and then given time to cool and firm; if the layer is cut before it sets, the shapes will be soft and break apart.

“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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