Skip to main content
Dessert

Pineapple-apricot Jam

A jam made from dried apricots, pineapple, sugar, and fruit pectin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Pineapple-apricot Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Soak the apricots in water overnight.

  2. Drain the apricots and chop or grind them.

Make the jam

  1. In a large kettle, combine 1 ¾ cups apricots, pineapple, and sugar.

  2. Bring the mixture to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly.

  3. Boil hard for 2 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the fruit pectin.

  5. Stir and skim for 3 minutes to cool slightly and prevent floating fruit.

  6. Pour quickly into glasses and seal at once.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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. Pineapple + syruptop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together568 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 flavor and body once softened and chopped.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and, with the boil, helps it thicken and keep.
Fruit pectin
Gels the fruit mixture so the jam sets as it cools.
Canned pineapple
Adds sweet, tangy fruit flavor and extra juice to the jam.

The step that matters

Boil hard for 2 minutes after reaching a full rolling boil. Pectin needs a full, sustained boil with plenty of sugar to set properly. Boiling too briefly can leave the jam runny, while stirring constantly prevents scorching on the bottom of the kettle.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

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

Pineapple SherbetPineapple Sherbet116 recipesPineapple PuddingPineapple Pudding72 recipesPineapple CreamPineapple Cream58 recipesPineapple JellyPineapple Jelly39 recipes