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Preparation of Grape Syrup

A syrup made by evaporating grape must with ash or chalk, eggs, and filtering.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,690 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Preparation of Grape Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Reduce the must

  1. Pour half of the grape must into a large kettle on the stove.

  2. Add new liquor as it evaporates.

  3. Skim the liquid.

  4. Stir to increase evaporation.

  5. Skim the liquid.

  6. Remove from heat.

Treat and clarify

  1. Add washed ashes, whiting, or powdered chalk until bubbling stops.

  2. Stir the mixture.

  3. Check for acidity with blue paper.

  4. Return the kettle to the stove.

  5. Add 2 beaten eggs.

  6. Let settle.

  7. Filter the liquid through woolen cloth in a wooden frame.

  8. Boil again to continue evaporation.

  9. Test syrup consistency by dropping from a spoon onto a plate; it should not break or spread out.

Bottle and store

  1. Pour into an unglazed earthenware vessel.

  2. Let cool completely.

  3. Transfer to cleaned, dried bottles.

  4. Cork them.

  5. Store in the cellar.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Grape + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Whiting + eggtop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together340 recipes
  3. Grape + whitingtop 38% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Grape must
Provides the sugars and flavour that concentrate into the syrup as water evaporates.
Washed ashes, whiting, or powdered chalk
Neutralises acidity in the must so the syrup tastes less sharp.
Eggs
Coagulate as they heat, trapping impurities so they can be skimmed or filtered out.

The step that matters

Testing the consistency. Syrup that looks thin while hot can set too thin or too thick once cooled. Judging by dropping it from a spoon onto a plate shows whether it has reduced enough, because sugar concentration determines how it flows and sets.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (whiting, egg):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Apricotfits about as well
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against whiting, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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