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 ↓
To Preserve Apricots
Ingredients
Directions
Prick the apricots and cover the bottom of a preserving pan with vine leaves.
Fill the pan with apricots and cold spring water, laying more vine leaves on top.
Heat over a slow fire until the apricots turn yellow, then remove and wipe them with a flannel and a little salt.
Return the apricots to the same water to green them.
Prepare a thin syrup and boil the apricots in it once, repeating this process for the next two days.
Drain the apricots from the syrup, then boil them again in a thicker syrup made with more sugar.
Store the apricots for later use.
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
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