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 Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the must
Put the grapes in a jar.
Pour boiling water over the grapes.
Squeeze the grapes with your hands when cool enough.
Cover the jar with a cloth.
Let it stand for 3 days.
Squeeze the juice through a jelly bag.
Stir in the sugar.
Ferment and bottle
After a week, skim the wine.
After a week, strain the wine.
After a week, bottle the wine.
After a week, cork loosely.
Once fermentation is complete, strain the wine again.
Once fermentation is complete, bottle the wine again.
Once fermentation is complete, cork tightly.
Once fermentation is complete, seal.
Store the bottles on their sides in a cool cellar.
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 sugars that ferment into wine.
- White sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide.
The step that matters
Cork loosely, then cork tightly after fermentation. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide, so a loose cork lets gas escape while the wine is still active. Corking tightly too early can build pressure and break the bottles.
“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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