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Grapes in Bunches, Wet

A preserved grape dish made by simmering grapes with salt and water, then cooking them in thin syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Grapes in Bunches, Wet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the grapes

  1. Remove the seeds from the grapes using a large pin.

  2. Mix the grapes with cold water and add the salt in a large preserving pan.

  3. Cover the grapes with a sheet of paper and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.

  4. Let the grapes cool.

  5. Transfer the cooled grapes to a brown pan or tub with water and keep them there until the next day.

  6. Drain the water from the grapes.

Syrup and preserve

  1. Boil thin syrup on the stove.

  2. Add the grapes to the boiling syrup.

  3. Cook the grapes in the syrup for 5 minutes.

  4. Remove the grapes from heat.

  5. Place the grapes in an earthen pan.

  6. Cover the grapes with paper.

  7. The next day, drain the syrup.

  8. Boil the syrup for 15 minutes.

  9. Add the grapes back to the syrup.

  10. Cook the grapes in the syrup for another 5 minutes.

  11. Repeat this process daily until the syrup thickens and the grapes look well-coated.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Grape + sugartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,490 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Grape + syruptop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 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

Grapes
Form the preserved fruit itself, which softens and takes on syrup during repeated cooking.
Thin syrup
Sweetens the grapes and, as it thickens over days, coats and preserves them.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the grapes during the initial soak, firming them before syrup is added.

The step that matters

Repeat the daily syrup cooking until it thickens. Preserving depends on the syrup concentrating over several days; stopping early leaves thin syrup that does not coat the grapes or keep them well.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, sugar. 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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