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 ↓
In Solid Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Peel the fruit thinly with a silver or ivory knife.
Split the peeled fruit and remove the stones from the fruit.
If using apricots, blanch the kernels.
Make the jam
Clarify an equal weight of sugar.
Boil the sugar until all water evaporates.
Add the fruit and kernels to the sugar.
Add the blanched kernels to the jam.
Boil for 30 minutes.
Check the jelly for stiffness.
If not stiff enough, boil longer.
Second method
For the second method, lay the fruit halves inside down on a flat dish.
Sprinkle sifted sugar over the fruit halves.
Let the fruit sit overnight to draw out syrup.
Drain the syrup into a preserving pan.
Boil the syrup.
Add the fruit to the boiling syrup.
Cook until the fruit is clear.
Remove the fruit pieces into small jars or glasses.
Pour the syrup over the fruit pieces.
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
- Fruit
- Provides the main body, flavour and pectin that helps the jam set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, in quantity, helps it set and preserves it.
The step that matters
Check the jelly for stiffness. Sugar and pectin set only after enough water has boiled off. Stopping too early leaves a runny jam, while boiling too long can make it stiff, dark and dull in 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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