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Grapes in Bunches, Wet

A preserved grape recipe using salt and thin syrup to cure grapes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and syrup work together. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 393 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. In a large preserving pan, mix cold water with the salt.

  3. Submerge the grapes in the salted water and cover with a sheet of paper.

  4. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, then let cool.

  5. Transfer the grapes to a brown pan or tub with water until the next day.

  6. Drain the water from the grapes.

Cook in syrup

  1. Boil thin syrup in a pot.

  2. Add the grapes to the boiling syrup and cook for 5 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and place grapes in an earthen pan, covering with paper.

Repeat until thickened

  1. Drain the syrup.

  2. Boil the syrup for 15 minutes.

  3. Add the grapes back to the syrup for 5 minutes.

  4. Repeat this process daily until the syrup thickens and the grapes look good.

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 + 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
The fruit that softens in brine and then takes on sweetness and body from the syrup.
Thin syrup
Sweetens the grapes and, as it thickens, coats them and helps preserve them.

The step that matters

Repeated syrup cooking. Sugar must build up slowly over several days. Boiling the syrup and resting the grapes in it draws water out of the fruit and lets sugar replace it, so the skins stay intact instead of splitting or collapsing.

“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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