Apricot

Prunus armeniaca · Stone fruit

1 variety40 pairings

The apricot is a small golden-orange stone fruit of the tree Prunus armeniaca, kin to the peach, plum and cherry. Velvety-skinned and barely larger than a plum, a ripe one is soft, honeyed and faintly tart, with a perfume of flowers and almond that comes from its lactone- and ionone-rich flesh. Picked underripe it is firm and sour; left too long it turns mealy and winey, so its peak window is famously brief.

Picking a good onedrag

Hard, green groundMealy and winey

Just ripeFirm enough to halve cleanly around the stone and hold its shape: grilling, roasting, tarts, poaching in syrup.Buy it

SkinGround gone gold, skin taut

FleshGives a little at the shoulder

SmellFaint sweet almond at the stem

Stem endCavity clean and dry, no tear

Reading a just ripe one. Move the slider and the rest of this page — nutrition, pairings — re-scores with it.

What one gives you

93%

Usable yield

35 g · stone out

38 g

Typical weight

one specimen

Keeping ittap a band

A domestic fridge holds it about 3× longer than the counter.

Humidity

90-95%

Thin downy skin loses water fast: drier than 90% and the stem end wrinkles, and the flesh goes leathery rather than soft.

Airflow

Open, single layer

Brown rot spreads between touching fruit — one layer, unwashed, and lift out any that has gone soft or weepy.

It ripens the bowl, and the bowl ripens it

Barely any in the cold, plenty at room temperature: one ripe apricot softens the bowl, and a banana beside them pushes a hard one along in a day.

Preparing