Why it works: Apricot and brandy work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 513 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Apricots
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apricots
Simmer the apricots in a pan of water covered with paper until soft.
Remove the apricots and place them in a large tablecloth folded four or five times, covering them tightly.
Steep in brandy
Mix ½ cup of powdered sugar into each quart of brandy until dissolved.
Place the apricots in a glass jar and fill it with brandy.
Cover the jar tightly with leather and a bladder, refilling with brandy as the apricots absorb it. Ensure the jar is sealed well to maintain the color of the apricots.
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.
-
Apricot + brandytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together513 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,630 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Pale apricots
- Provide the fruit that softens during simmering and absorbs the brandy and sugar.
- Uncolored french brandy
- Preserves the fruit with alcohol and carries its flavor into the apricots.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and dissolves into the brandy to sweeten the fruit.
The step that matters
Keeping the apricots submerged and sealed. Fruit exposed to air can darken and spoil. Topping up the brandy as the apricots absorb it keeps every piece covered, and a tight seal limits air reaching the fruit.
Swap the apricot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotthe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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.
You might also like
Brandy Peaches68 recipes
Apricot Ice Cream26 recipes
Brandy Cream21 recipes
Brandy Pudding13 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.