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To Preserve Green Apricots

A method for preserving green apricots in a sweet syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

To Preserve Green Apricots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Boil the apricots quickly until they begin to jelly.

  2. Add the fruit and give one boil, then skim well.

  3. Layer vine or apricot leaves and fruit alternately in a pot, filling it up.

  4. Cover with spring water and seal to prevent steam from escaping.

  5. Place the pot away from the fire for 4-5 hours until the apricots are soft but not cracked.

Make the syrup

  1. Make a thin syrup with some of the water and drain the fruit.

  2. Once both the fruit and syrup are cold, combine them in the pot.

  3. Keep the pot at a distance from the fire until the apricots turn green, avoiding boiling or cracking.

  4. Carefully transfer the apricots into a pan with the syrup for 2-3 days.

  5. Pour off excess syrup, boil it with more sugar to create a rich syrup, and add sliced ginger if desired.

  6. When cold, pour the thick syrup over the fruit.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Apricot + brandytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Apricot + gingertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together341 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Green apricots
Form the main body of the preserve, softening slowly while keeping their shape.
Fine sugar
Preserves the fruit and builds the thick syrup that gives sweetness and body.
Vine or apricot leaves
Layered with the fruit to add a subtle aroma and help keep the apricots green.

The step that matters

Keep the pot away from the fire. Gentle, sub-boiling heat lets the apricots soften without cracking or breaking down. Boiling makes the skins split and the fruit turn mushy, spoiling the texture.

Swap the ginger

The recipe marks ginger as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apricot, sugar, brandy):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, 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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