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
Remove the stems from the grapes and place them in an earthenware pan or porcelain-lined kettle.
Crush a few berries at the bottom to prevent burning and heat until boiling.
Remove from heat and hang in a jelly bag to drain the juice.
Once drained, weigh the juice and return it to the kettle.
Make the jelly
Boil the juice for 20 minutes, skimming as necessary.
Add ¾ pound of sugar for every pound of juice and boil until thickened.
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 juice and natural pectin that the jelly sets from.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it thicken and set as it boils.
The step that matters
Boil the juice with sugar until thickened. Sugar and acid in the juice must reach the right concentration for the jelly to set. Boiling too briefly leaves it runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff or cause sugar to crystallize.
“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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