Why it works: Grape and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,490 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Grape Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Pick grapes from their stems and wash them.
Place grapes in a pot with water to prevent burning and stew for a few moments.
Mash the grapes gently with a silver spoon and strain the juice.
Make the jelly
For every pint of juice, add 1 pound of white sugar.
Bring the juice to a boil and boil for 20 minutes.
Pour the hot juice over the heated sugar and stir constantly until dissolved.
Fill jelly glasses with the mixture.
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.
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Grape + sugartop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,490 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Grapes
- Provide the fruit flavour and the pectin and acid that help the juice set into jelly.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm and keep its texture.
The step that matters
Stirring the hot juice into the sugar until dissolved. If sugar stays undissolved, it can form grains in the finished jelly. Stirring constantly while the juice is hot helps the sugar dissolve fully and evenly before the mixture sets.
“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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