Why it works: Apricot and brandy work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 513 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Delicious Apricot Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Pare and halve the ripe apricots, removing the stones.
Blanch and bruise the kernels.
Make the jam
Boil the parings, crushed stones, and skins in double the amount of water needed for the fruit until reduced by half.
For every pound of apricots, add ½ cup of the strained liquid and 1 pound of sifted sugar to the pot.
Stir over a brisk fire until the mixture is well combined and the fruit is thoroughly mashed.
Jar and cover
Let the mixture cool covered, then transfer to a jar, sprinkle sugar on top, and place a piece of writing paper soaked in brandy on top.
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 + brandytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together513 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,630 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ripe apricots
- Provide the fruit pulp and natural pectin that give the jam its body and help it set.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness, thickens the mixture as water evaporates, and helps preserve the jam.
- Pounded apricot kernels
- Add a subtle almond-like aroma to the jam.
The step that matters
Stir over a brisk fire until the fruit is thoroughly mashed. Sugar and fruit can scorch on the bottom of the pot if left unstirred over high heat. Constant stirring distributes heat and keeps the mixture from sticking and burning while water evaporates and the jam thickens.
Swap the apricot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotthe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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