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Dessert

Grape Conserve

A preserve made from Concord grapes, sugar, water, oranges, raisins, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Grape Conserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the grapes

  1. Pulp the grapes and save the skins.

  2. Put the pulps in a pot and bring to a boil.

  3. Pass the mixture through a flour sifter to remove seeds.

Cook the preserve

  1. Add the skins, water, sugar, and oranges (cut into small pieces, seeds removed, and peel cut into pieces).

  2. Add the seeded raisins and boil for 30 minutes.

  3. Just before removing from heat, add the almonds cut into long strips.

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. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Grape + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,771 recipes

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

  4. Grape + almondtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  5. Orange + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 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

Concord grapes
Provide the main fruit flavour, pectin and body for the preserve.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the preserve and helps it thicken as it cooks.
Oranges
Add acidity and aromatic citrus flavour that balances the sweetness.
Almonds
Add crunch and nutty texture to the finished preserve.
Seeded raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.

The step that matters

Passing the pulp through a sifter. Grape seeds are bitter and hard, so the pulp must be pressed through a fine sieve to remove them fully. Leftover seeds can spoil the texture and taste of the finished preserve.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, orange, almond, raisin):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, almond, raisin. 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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