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Fruits in Brandy

Apricots preserved in clarified syrup and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Fruits in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apricots

  1. Rub off the down from the apricots and prick them to the stone.

Syrup and soak

  1. In a pot, combine the thin clarified syrup with the sugar.

  2. Add the apricots and bring to a boil, then let them sit in the syrup overnight.

  3. The next day, remove the apricots, drain them, and place them in glasses or pots.

Add the brandy and seal

  1. Boil the syrup again, skim it well, and mix it with double the quantity of brandy.

  2. Strain the mixture through a jelly bag, fill the glasses, and cover them with bladders.

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 + brandytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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 that is preserved and becomes tender in the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the fruit by drawing out moisture.
Brandy
Adds alcohol that helps preserve the fruit and contributes aroma.

The step that matters

Boiling the syrup again and skimming it well. Boiling and skimming remove foam and impurities that could spoil the preserve. Mixing the syrup with brandy while it is still hot-cooked helps it stay clear and stable in storage.

Swap the apricot

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup, brandy. 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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