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 ↓
Delicious Apricot Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apricots
Pare and halve the apricots.
Remove and crack the stones.
Blanch the kernels.
Bruise the kernels.
Boil the parings, crushed stones, and skins in double the amount of water needed for the fruit until reduced by half.
Make the jam
Add ½ cup of the strained liquid, 1 pound of sugar, and the pounded kernels to the 2 pounds of apricots.
Set over a brisk fire.
Stir until the fruit is thoroughly mashed and the mixture has a good consistency.
Pot and store
Pour into a container.
Let cool.
Cover with a little sugar and a piece of brandy-dipped writing paper.
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 body, pectin and flavour that set the jam when cooked down.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and helps preserve it and give it a thick set.
- Apricot kernels
- Add a subtle almond-like aroma that enriches the apricot flavour.
The step that matters
Stir until the fruit is thoroughly mashed and the mixture has a good consistency. Sugar and fruit must cook long enough for pectin and sugar concentration to reach a set; undercooking leaves runny jam, while overcooking over a brisk fire can scorch the sugar and dull the flavour.
“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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