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 ↓
Wine From Catawba Grapes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Gather the grapes and remove any decayed ones.
Place the grapes in a large bowl or tub.
Mash the grapes to break the skins and extract the juice.
Ferment and sweeten
Cover the bowl to keep out insects and let it sit for several days until fermentation begins.
Strain the juice and add 1 pound of sugar for each gallon of juice.
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
- Catawba grapes
- Supply the juice, plus skin-borne yeasts that start fermentation.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness and provides the sugar that yeast converts into alcohol.
The step that matters
Cover the bowl and let it sit until fermentation begins. The cover keeps insects out while the natural yeasts on the grapes multiply and start converting the sugars in the juice. Watching for the first signs of fermentation tells you the process is underway before you strain and sweeten.
“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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