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To Preserve Apricots in Jelly

A method for preserving apricots in a sugar and codlin liquor jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and ginger work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 341 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

To Preserve Apricots in Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apricots

  1. Pare the apricots very thin and remove the stones.

  2. Weigh an equal quantity of fine powdered sugar and sprinkle it over the apricots.

  3. Let the apricots sit overnight.

Cook the apricots

  1. The next day, boil the apricots gently until clear.

  2. Transfer the boiled apricots to a bowl and pour the liquid over them.

Make the jelly and pot

  1. Prepare codlin liquor by boiling and straining 1 quart of water.

  2. Add 1 pound of fine sugar to the codlin liquor and boil until it reaches a jelly consistency.

  3. Add the apricots to the jelly.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil and skim well.

  5. Transfer to small pots.

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

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

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

Apricots
Provide the fruit body of the preserve, softening and turning clear when boiled gently.
Fine powdered sugar
Draws juice out of the apricots overnight, creating the syrup and sweetening the fruit.
Fine sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, when boiled, concentrates the syrup so it can set to a jelly.

The step that matters

Boiling the sugar syrup to a jelly consistency. Sugar must be boiled long enough to concentrate the liquid so the preserve sets. Too little boiling leaves it runny and prone to spoiling, while overboiling can make it stiff or darken and taste caramelised.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, sugar. 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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