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Preserve

To Preserve Apricots

Preserved apricots with sugar and kernels, sealed in pots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 Preserve Apricots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apricots

  1. Pare the apricots as thin as possible and cut them in halves, removing the stones.

  2. Weigh the apricots and lay the halves on dishes, hollow side up, shaking some sugar over them. Let them sit for 12 hours.

  3. In the meantime, break the stones and blanch the kernels in hot water.

Cook and pot

  1. After 12 hours, place the apricots in a preserving pan with the juice, sugar, and kernels.

  2. Simmer slowly until the apricots look clear, skimming off any scum that rises.

  3. Once done, remove the apricot halves and place them in preserving pots, pouring the juice and kernels over them.

  4. Seal the pots with bladder.

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
Form the main body of the preserve, softening and turning clear as they cook in syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws out its juice, and helps preserve it.
Apricot kernels
Add a warm, almond-like aroma to the cooking syrup.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly and skim. Gentle simmering lets the apricots soften and clear without breaking apart, while skimming removes scum that would cloud the syrup and affect the finished texture.

“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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