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Grape Soup

A sweet soup made from grape juice, sugar, raisins, cinnamon, and dried fruits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Grape Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the grape soup

  1. Stem, wash, and cook enough Concord grapes to yield 1 quart of rich grape juice.

  2. Add 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of seedless raisins (soaked in water for 2 hours), and 4 sticks of cinnamon.

  3. Let boil for half an hour.

  4. Remove the sticks of cinnamon and thicken with 4 tablespoons of flour.

  5. (Optional) Grape jelly can be used in place of grape juice.

  6. Serve hot or very cold.

Make the dried fruit soup

  1. Thoroughly wash and partly dry the dried currants, seedless raisins, prunes, and other dried fruit.

  2. Combine three quarts of water, 1 cup of dried currants, 1 cup of seedless raisins, 1 cup of prunes, 1 cup of applies (dried or fresh), 1 small cup of sago, 3 or 4 sticks of cinnamon, and 1 tablespoon New Orleans molasses.

  3. Put all ingredients together in a double boiler and boil very slowly for three hours.

  4. Serve hot or cold.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

630Calories
14 gProtein
2 gFat
141 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 9 ingredients. The other 4 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Waternot in our table0
Prunenot in our table0
Fruitnot in our table0
Soupnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Grape + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Grape juice
Provides the main grape flavor and liquid base of the soup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the tartness of the grapes.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, body-rich soup as it cooks.
Seedless raisins
Add sweetness and soft, chewy texture as they plump in the liquid.
Sago
Swells as it cooks, giving the soup a thickened, slightly gel-like body.

The step that matters

Remove the sticks of cinnamon and thicken with 4 tablespoons of flour. Flour must be stirred in smoothly and cooked through; added to hot liquid without thorough mixing it clumps, and uncooked flour leaves a raw, pasty taste.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, raisin, cinnamon, flour, currant, molasses):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, cinnamon, flour, currant, molasses. 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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