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 ↓
Apricot Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Skin the apricots and halve them, removing the stones.
Layer the apricots with the same weight of sugar and let it stand for twelve hours.
Cook the jam
Transfer the mixture to a preserving pan and boil until the apricots become clear.
About five minutes before removing from heat, add the blanched kernels of the stones.
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 body, pectin and tart flavour that form the jam.
- Sugar
- Draws moisture out of the fruit and preserves the jam while adding sweetness.
- Blanched kernels of apricot stones
- Add a subtle almond-like aroma to the jam.
The step that matters
Boiling until the apricots become clear. Boiling must be continued until the fruit turns clear and the mixture thickens; stopping too early leaves a loose, runny jam, while overcooking can darken the color and dull the flavour.
“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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