I am very lucky to have neighbors with a somewhat large orchard. I’ve mentioned them before as they are very generous with the fruit they grow. I showed you their cherry trees when I shared my recipe for Cherry Lemonade Jam. Recently I was asked if I could make use of some apricots. I couldn’t say yes fast enough – Apricot Jam is my favorite. But I knew that I would want to make more than just jam so out came my canning cookbooks to see what else I might make. And it came to me – I could use the basics of my Plum Sauce but substitute apricots. Crazy? Maybe. But it turns out that I was crazy/smart. I turned it into a delicious apricot recipe.
The trees were just overloaded with fruit – can you believe this bounty?
…the trees were so full the branches were falling to the ground. Fruits everywhere in varying stages of ripeness but even so I was overwhelmed with where to start. There were so many! I stayed and picked the beautiful fruits for about 20 minutes and found that my bucket was full. After walking home I weighed that bucket. There were 30lbs of apricots! So many delicious possibilities were ahead.
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Apricot Recipe: Apricot Sauce
10 cups pitted, chopped apricots
2 cups brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 TBS finely chopped fresh gingerroot
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 TBS salt
2 TBS mustard seeds
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, gingerroot, garlic, onion, mustard seeds, cayenne and vinegar to a large, stainless steel stock pot.
Heat over medium high heat until the mixture comes to a boil.
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Add the chopped apricots and return to a boil.
Reduce heat to a simmer and let the sauce cook for one hour and forty five minutes to two hours until it is thickened and reduced.
Prepare your canner and jars – it will make between three and four pints.
Add the hot sauce to hot jars leaving about 1/2″ headspace.
Adjust sauce in the jar to make sure there are no air spaces. If you need to add more do so.
Clean the rim of the jar and add the lid per the instructions.
Screw on the band finger tight.
Add to the canner and bring to a boil.
Process for 20 minutes (25 minutes over 3,000 ft).
Turn off the heat and let the jars sit in the canner for 5 minutes.
Remove from the canner and let cool.
A Canning Hack to Use in the Apricot Recipe
Here’s a little tip – I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before but it’s worth doing so again – when I’m chopping fruits or anything for canning that I need to add in quantity I mark each cup in some way so I know exactly how many are in the pot. It’s not so bad if you are only chopping three but when you need ten like you do for this recipe and you get interrupted midway well, it’s good to have some way to know where you are.
If you look at my photo above you can see four apricot pits just sitting on the table. They are my markers. I can walk away and come back half an hour later and know that I have four cups of apricots in my pot. Easy, right? And that way you don’t have to think about where you are as you go along.
How Was the Apricot Recipe? And An Easy Way to Use It
I used the sauce for dinner last night. There was abit leftover and I knew it would be delicious on scallops. The two of us have decided we like it even better than the plum sauce! It’s sweet/tart with an underlying heat. I know itwill go great with chicken, pork, shrimp and yes, scallops.
rJust dust the scallops with a bit of flour and cornmeal. Then put a cast iron skillet on medium high heat and add about a tablespoon of canola oil. Add the scallops and cook them for two minutes on each side. Put the cooked scallops on jasmine rice and top them with the apricot sauce. It was a seriously yummy dinner.
Where Did All the Apricots Go?
So far I’ve made three batches of this apricot sauce recipe and one batch of jam. That means I have chopped 36 cups of apricots. Actually I have chopped 46 cups ’cause I have another 10 cups ready to go for another batch of sauce.
My hands hurt.
But I’m going to go back and pick more apricots when I can. I have an idea for another recipe. I have also made an Apricot Cheesecake. It was a bit hit at the pot luck.
This recipe from the Ball Preserving Book is very versatile as I have made it three ways now; the apricot you see here but also Plum Sauce and Peach Sauce. Each one, despite using pretty much the same ingredients – I did make a couple of variations – tastes unique.
