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Dessert

Grape Jelly

A clear grape jelly made with grapes, lemon juice, syrup, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,412 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Grape Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Extract the juice from the grapes using a flannel bag.

  2. Add the lemon juice and syrup to the grape juice.

  3. Mix in the prepared isinglass.

  4. Finish as you would for a clear jelly.

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 + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,412 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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
Provide the main juice and flavour of the jelly.
Isinglass
Gelling agent that sets the juice into a firm jelly.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and body to balance the tart juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and supports setting.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, syrup. 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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