Take a good look at this picture. It has two kinds of dried apricots in it. Until a few days ago, I had no ideas that dried apricots came in another way than the bright, jewel-like, glassy ones. Did you? Note the dark ones in the picture. They�re not like that. What makes them different? They are not treated with sulfur dioxide.
I was actually a bit surprised to hear this. I had never given it much thought � I thought dried apricots really were that bright. Maybe I�m stupid. Apparently a lot of people are highly allergic to sulfur dioxide. Huh. Here�s a link to read more about it.
Anyway � I found unsulfured apricots at my store, and brought home a bag to try. I also had some bright apricots left in my fridge, where they�ve been sitting for a while. So, for my taste-test, I had old, sulfured apricots, and new unsulfured ones. I would really love to be able to say that the unsulfured ones, despite their brown appeareance, were so much better-tasting. Sadly, that wasn�t the case. They were sweet, and much more caramelly � they tasted kind of like figs, or even raisins. (And I'm sadly not much of a fan of either.) Not much like the apricots I�m used to though. The orange apricots were much tarter, and much �brighter� if that makes sense. They tasted like apricots should taste. So, in the case of apricots, I say beauty AND taste wins. Try for yourself!
Oh � what I did I make with all these apricots you ask? I made Clotilde�s Breakfast Clafoutis, a �cake� from oatmeal, milk, sugar, eggs, dried fruit, apples and nuts. I�ve made it a couple of times now, and it�s nice to keep in the freezer for emergency breakfast days.
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