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To Dry Apricots

A method for drying apricots by simmering them with sugar and then drying them on dishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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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 Dry Apricots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Wipe the apricots gently, split them, and remove the stones.

  2. Weigh the apricots and arrange them in a deep dish or bowl.

  3. Sprinkle 14 ounces of sugar over each pound of fruit.

Cook in syrup

  1. The next day, transfer the apricots and sugar into a preserving pan.

  2. Heat the apricots slowly and simmer for 6 to 8 minutes until tender.

  3. Let the apricots sit in the syrup for 1 to 2 days.

Dry

  1. Drain the apricots and spread them out on dishes to dry.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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
The main fruit; simmering softens it and drying concentrates its flavour.
Fine sugar
Draws moisture out of the fruit and forms a syrup that sweetens and preserves it.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly. Heating gently softens the apricots without breaking them apart. Vigorous boiling can split the fruit and make the syrup cloudy, so keep it at a slow simmer.

“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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