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To Preserve Apricots

A method for preserving apricots using vine leaves, water, and sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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. Prick the apricots.

  2. Cover the bottom of a preserving pan with vine leaves.

  3. Fill the pan with apricots and cold spring water, layering more vine leaves on top.

  4. Heat over a slow fire until the apricots turn yellow.

  5. Remove the apricots and wipe them with a flannel and a little salt.

  6. Return the apricots to the same water to green them.

Make the syrup and preserve

  1. Prepare a thin syrup.

  2. Boil the apricots in the thin syrup once.

  3. Repeat the boiling process for the next two days.

  4. Drain the apricots from the syrup.

  5. Strengthen the syrup with more sugar.

  6. Boil the apricots again in the thick syrup.

  7. Store the apricots for later use.

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

Green apricots
Form the preserved fruit itself, which softens and takes on syrup during repeated boiling.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, at higher concentration, preserves it by drawing out water.
Vine leaves
Line and cover the fruit in the pan, helping hold heat and keep the apricots submerged.

The step that matters

Heat over a slow fire until the apricots turn yellow. Gentle heat softens and colours the fruit evenly, while fierce boiling can break the skins and cook the flesh to mush before it absorbs syrup.

“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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