Name: Candied Grapes
Ingredients: finest green Malaga grapes; candy (sugar syrup)

Why it works: Sugar and syrup 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 ↓

Candied Grapes

Ingredients

finest green Malaga grapes
candy (sugar syrup)

Directions

Select the finest green Malaga grapes, discarding any that are spotted or discolored.
Break the grapes into bunches of two or three.
Prepare a sugar syrup for candying.
Dip each grape or bunch by the stalk into the syrup until coated.
Hang the coated grapes on a wire line or lay them on waxed paper or a greased pan to dry.

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Grape + sugartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,490 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Grape + syruptop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together393 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).