Why it works: Grape and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,490 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Grape Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Place grapes in a stone crock in a kettle of boiling water.
Gently stir the grapes from the bottom with a wooden spoon until all are broken.
Cover the mouth of an empty crock with a towel.
Pour in a quart of hot grapes.
Occasionally pass the spoon under the grapes to remove the pulp from the towel without pressing.
Repeat the draining process until all grapes are drained.
Measure the juice.
Make the jelly
Add 1 pound of sugar for every pint.
Heat the juice over the fire until it is very hot but not boiling.
Add the sugar.
Stir until completely dissolved.
Pour the jelly into glasses.
Cover when cold.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Grape + sugartop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,490 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Grapes
- Provide the pulp and juice that set into the jelly's body and flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and helps the juice set into a firm jelly.
The step that matters
Heat the juice until very hot but not boiling. Boiling can scorch the juice and change its flavour, while heat that is too low may not fully dissolve the sugar. Keeping it just below a boil helps the sugar dissolve cleanly before the jelly sets.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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