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Method of Conserving Apricots

A method for preserving apricots by simmering them in sugar syrup and storing them in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Method of Conserving Apricots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut a small slit near the stem end of the apricots.

  2. Remove the stones.

  3. Simmer the apricots in water until nearly half done.

  4. Peel the apricots.

Make the syrup and simmer

  1. Simmer the peeled apricots in a syrup made of 2 parts water and 1 part loaf sugar for about 20 minutes.

  2. Set the apricots aside for 12 hours.

  3. Strain off the syrup.

  4. Add 4 ounces of lump sugar to 1 pint of the syrup.

  5. Simmer the apricots again for 10 minutes, skimming off any impurities that rise to the surface.

  6. Repeat the simmering process 3 or 4 times.

Jar and seal

  1. Place the apricots in jars.

  2. Cover them with a syrup made of 7 ounces of water and 1 pound of loaf sugar.

  3. Seal the jars tightly to exclude air.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Apricot + syruptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. 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
Provide the fruit that softens and absorbs sugar syrup during repeated simmering.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and builds a concentrated syrup that helps preserve the fruit.
Lump sugar
Adds sweetness and raises the sugar concentration of the syrup used for the final simmers.

The step that matters

Seal the jars tightly to exclude air. Air carries mould and microbes that can spoil preserved fruit. A tight seal keeps the apricots submerged in syrup and protected during storage.

Swap the apricot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, syrup):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Pearfits about as well
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup. 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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