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
Prepare the fruit
Skin the apricots.
Halve the apricots.
Stone the apricots.
Place the apricots in a dish.
Sprinkle half the sugar over them.
Leave for 12 hours.
Cook the jam
Pour the syrup into a preserving pan.
Add the remaining sugar, stirring until dissolved.
Add the apricots.
Add the kernels of about half the apricots, blanched and sliced.
Boil gently for 30 to 40 minutes.
Test for doneness.
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 body that the jam is built around.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and draws moisture from the fruit to form a syrup that helps it set.
The step that matters
Test for doneness. Jam sets as it cooks and concentrates. Undercooked jam stays runny, while overcooked jam can turn thick, dull and sticky, so checking the set before stopping the boil matters.
“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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