When life gives you apricots ...

When apricots are 3 euros a kilogram in the market (with smaller ones -- more slicing -- for 2 euros) what's a chap to do? Make apricot jam, obviously.

Off to the Internets, where recipes are, if anything, even more abundant than apricots. They're very variable. Many involve pectin and additional sterilisation in a water bath. One adds grated carrot, ginger and chopped almonds, which may be "unusual" but isn't quite what I was looking for. Too much choice is always an affliction. Then I saw an apricot jam recipe from David Lebovitz, a name to conjure with. Four essential ingredients and one crucial piece of advice:

Because fruit doesn’t grow in standardized quantities (at least the fruit I want to eat) my general rule is to use three-quarters of the amount of sugar per one-part apricot puree. So if you use more, or less, apricots, simply use for each cup of puree, by volume, three-quarters cup of sugar.

I can really relate to ratios.

And so it was that on a sweltering summer's day, I found myself slaving over a hot stove. And the result, although I say so as shouldn't, was pretty good, judged purely on the basis of licking from the cooled pot.

David says it will keep "up to one year if refrigerated".

It should last that long.