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Apricot Conserve

A sweet preserve made from apricots, pineapple, sugar, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and pineapple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 377 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Apricot Conserve

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Soak apricots overnight in cold water to cover.

  2. Cook apricots until tender.

  3. Add pineapple cut into cubes and its juice.

  4. Stir in sugar and cook slowly until desired consistency is reached.

  5. Add blanched almonds broken in two.

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 + pineappletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Apricot + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pineapple + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together428 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. 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

Dried apricots
Provide the main fruit body and pectin-rich pulp that thickens the preserves as they cook.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserves and helps set the thick, spreadable texture as the mixture cooks down.
Pineapple
Adds juice and acidity, adding bright flavour and moisture to the fruit mixture.
Blanched almonds
Add crunchy texture and nutty flavour that contrast with the soft fruit.

The step that matters

Stir in sugar and cook slowly until desired consistency is reached.. Sugar and fruit pectin set together as water evaporates, so cooking too fast or too briefly can leave the preserves runny or scorch the sugar on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits less well
  4. Hazelnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, sugar, pineapple. 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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