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Dessert

Apricot Bavarian Cream

A chilled dessert of apricot pulp blended with gelatin and folded into whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and gelatin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Apricot Bavarian Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apricots

  1. Wash the apricots and soak them in cold water overnight.

  2. Cook the apricots in the same water until tender.

  3. Add the sugar and cook for 10 more minutes.

  4. Drain the apricots and press them through a fine sieve.

  5. If there isn't enough pulp to make 1 cup, add some of the cooking syrup.

Make the cream

  1. Soak the gelatin in ½ cup cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Stir the gelatin over hot water until dissolved.

  3. Mix the apricot pulp with the dissolved gelatin.

  4. Stir occasionally over ice until it begins to thicken.

  5. Fold the mixture into the whipped cream until stiff enough to hold its shape.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a mold.

  2. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

  3. Serve with additional whipped cream.

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. Cream + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  5. Apricot + gelatintop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Evaporated apricots
Provide the main fruit flavour and the pulp that gives the cream its body.
Double cream
Adds richness and fat, and whipped, lightens the texture of the cream.
Granulated gelatin
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the apricots and helps soften them during cooking.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture over ice until it begins to thicken. Gelatin sets quickly as it cools. If the mixture is left to set fully before the cream is folded in, it becomes lumpy and the cream will not blend smoothly. Stop once it thickens slightly and is still pourable.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, gelatin, 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.

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