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 Paste
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Cook the pulp
Place the apricots in a preserving pan with a little sugar.
Cook them on the side of the range until they reduce to a paste.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.
Add ½ lb of sugar for every 1 lb of pulp and boil for 10 minutes.
Shape and dry
Pour the mixture into a mold or spread it on sheets of tin.
Dry in the oven at 300°F (150°C) until it forms a paste.
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
- Supply the fruit pulp that cooks down into the body of the paste.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the paste thicken and keep its texture as it sets.
The step that matters
Drying in the oven. As moisture evaporates the paste firms and holds its shape. Too little drying leaves it soft and sticky, while too much makes it hard and brittle.
“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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