Making Escoffier's Apricot Jam

The organic apricot jam I made last week hasn't set properly. I was a bit suspicious when Mrs. Beeton's recipe directed me to cook the fruit "on a moderate heat so the fruit does not break up too much" (a vague directive) and then to place it directly in the jars before thickening the syrup and pouring it on top.

I was worried that all the extra liquid accompanying the fruit would disrupt the setting of the jam, and that's just what happened. Even though the syrup was lovely and thick when I topped up the jars, the final product would best be described as "stewed apricots in heavy syrup".

I think the recipe would work if one cooked the fruit (a) longer or (b) less long, and/or strained it in a sieve before putting it in the jars (a process rather like separating egg yolks, I imagine). However – and with all due respect to Mrs. Beeton – I decided to get our top man on the case. So this week, I tried Escoffier's recipe.

He calls for ¾ cup of sugar and ½ cup of water for every pound of fruit. The apricots are halved, and the kernels removed (more on that later). The sugar and water are combined off the heat. When the sugar has fully dissolved, you boil the syrup for a few minutes, skimming if necessary.

Escoffier explains that the scum can cause the jam to crystallize later. So can sugar from the edges of the pot or the stem of the spoon, if it gets stirred back into the jam. Therefore one must resist the thrifty urge to scrape the sides of the jam pot while it's cooking. When filling the jars, I lift the jam from the centre of the pot with a spoon or ladle. It also doesn't hurt to clean the spoon from time to time.

When the sugar has boiled a few minutes, the apricots are added and the whole is cooked on a moderate heat until it gels, as described in my post on raspberry jam. Escoffier directs you to add the inner "almonds" found inside the apricot kernels as the jars are filled.

The "almonds" actually have an almond taste. As I thought, this is because they contain the poison cyanide. I read up on this a little. Many fruit seeds (apples, peaches, cherries, nectarines, plums) contain cyanide. According to a quick look at a variety of online sources, there seems to be a general consensus that the quantity of seeds required to harm an adult would be very high indeed; however, a child can apparently die from eating the kernels of just 15 apricots.

It seems that heat destroys the enzyme that allows the cyanide to form, but if you have young children in the house, you may wish to skip this part of the recipe. (Before you panic altogether, I might mention that when I was seven or eight I used to eat all my apple seeds, peeled, because I liked the almond taste. It never killed me.)

Escoffier tells us to crack the kernels (I use a very good nutcracker, with the kernels set on edge. I hold it deep in the sink so bits don't go shooting across the kitchen.) You don't have to crush the whole kernel; ideally you'll just crack it slightly so the outer shell falls into two neat pieces,

Escoffier also recommends peeling the "almonds". To do this, use a strainer to immerse them in the boiling water in the canner for a few minutes (because you're sterilizing jars while doing this step, right?) Then the brown skins just slip easily off, and you can also pop them into two neat pieces with your fingers.

Right now, the jars are still warm, and the jam is already thicker than last week's batch (jam does seem to continue to set very slowly for many days after it's sealed). I'm optimistic that this batch will turn out successfully – maybe I can try to make one of those traditional French glazed fruit pies, which classically use apricot preserves, later on this year!

Postscript: After all this, the jar from last week that I sampled today is in the fridge, and since it's chilled it's become much thicker. Go figure.