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Grapes in Bunches, Wet

A method of preserving grapes by salting, soaking, and cooking them in 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. In a large preserving pan, mix cold water with ½ ounce of coarse sea salt.

  3. Submerge the grapes in the salted water.

  4. Cover the grapes with a sheet of paper.

  5. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.

  6. Let cool.

  7. Transfer the grapes to a brown pan or tub with water.

  8. Let sit overnight.

  9. Drain the water from the grapes.

Syrup and cooking

  1. Boil syrup on the stove.

  2. Add the grapes to the boiling syrup.

  3. Cook for 5 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat.

  5. Place grapes in an earthen pan, covering with paper.

  6. Drain the syrup.

  7. Boil it for 15 minutes.

  8. Add the grapes back to the syrup.

  9. Cook for 5 minutes.

  10. 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. 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 main body of the preserve, softening and absorbing the syrup as they cook.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the grapes and firms their flesh before they are cooked in syrup.
Sugar
Forms the syrup that preserves the grapes and gives them sweetness.

The step that matters

Repeating the syrup cooking daily. Sugar must concentrate gradually across repeated boiling and resting so the syrup thickens without the grapes breaking down. Cooking too hard or too long at once can toughen or scorch them.

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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