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Dessert

Spioed Gbapes

A sweet and tart preserve made from grapes, sugar, vinegar, cloves, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Ladies' Benevolent Society, First Congregational Church (Fall River, Mass .). Ladies' Benevolent Society, Mass.) First Congregational Church (Fall River · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Spioed Gbapes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the grapes

  1. Remove skins from the grapes.

  2. Cook skins and pulp separately.

  3. Strain pulp through a colander.

Make the spiced grapes

  1. Add one half pound of sugar to a pint of grapes, and one half pint of vinegar to four quarts of grapes.

  2. Add ground cloves and cinnamon to taste.

  3. Boil slowly for one hour.

  4. Combine five pounds of currants, four pounds of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of ground cloves, two tablespoons of cinnamon, and one pint of vinegar.

  5. Boil for one hour.

  6. Blackberries and huckleberries cooked the same way are even better.

Prepare and cook the quinces

  1. Wipe quinces, pare, wash.

  2. Bring water and sugar to a boil.

  3. Put in grated quinces and cook for twenty minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

134Calories
1 gProtein
1 gFat
34 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Cloves1 tsp ground (2g)7
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Waternot in our table0
Quincenot 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 Ladies' Benevolent Society, First Congregational Church (Fall River, Mass .). Ladies' Benevolent Society, Mass.) First Congregational Church (Fall River. 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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + quincetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Quince + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Grape + quincetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together96 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and helps thicken the syrup as it cooks down.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and sharpens the fruit flavour.
Currants
Provide the bulk of the fruit, giving body and pectin to the spiced mixture.
Quinces
Add firm body and natural pectin that helps the mixture set.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for one hour. Long, gentle boiling evaporates water and concentrates sugar and fruit, so the mixture thickens without scorching. Too fast a boil can burn the sugar before the fruit breaks down.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, grape, vinegar, clove, quince, cinnamon):

  1. Applefits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, grape, vinegar, clove, quince, cinnamon. 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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