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 in Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apricots
Pare the apricots very thin and remove the stones.
Weigh an equal amount of fine sugar and sprinkle it over the apricots.
Let the apricots sit overnight.
Cook the apricots
Boil the apricots gently until clear.
Transfer the boiled apricots to a bowl and pour the syrup over them.
Make the jelly
The next day, combine the syrup with 1 quart of codlin liquor and 1 pound of fine sugar.
Boil the mixture until it reaches a jelly consistency.
Add the apricots to the syrup and bring to a boil. Skim off any scum.
Transfer to small pots.
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
What each ingredient does
- Apricots
- Provide the fruit flavour and most of the body of the jelly.
- Fine sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the jelly set by binding water.
- Codlin liquor
- Adds liquid and natural pectin that help the jelly set.
The step that matters
Boiling the syrup to jelly consistency. Sugar and pectin set only when enough water has evaporated. Stopping too early leaves the jelly runny, while boiling too long makes it stiff and can caramelise the sugar.
“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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