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Dessert

Grape Conserve

A preserve made from grapes, raisins, nuts, orange pulp, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,771 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Grape Conserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Pulp the grapes and cook until soft.

  2. Pass the mixture through a colander, then add the skins, orange pulp, and raisins.

Cook and set

  1. For every cup of this mixture, add 1 cup of sugar and cook until it reaches a jelly-like consistency.

  2. Add the nuts and pour into jelly glasses.

Seal

  1. Cover with paraffin.

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

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

  2. Raisin + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together490 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Grape + nutstop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together224 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Grapes
Provide the main fruit body and juice that cook down into the spread.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps it thicken into a jelly-like set as it cooks.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and soft chewy texture to the preserve.
Nuts
Add crunch and contrast to the soft, jelly-like texture.
Orange
Adds bright acidity and aroma from its pulp and skins.

The step that matters

Cooking to a jelly-like consistency. Sugar and fruit set only when enough water evaporates and the sugar concentration rises. Stopping too early leaves the preserve runny, while overcooking makes it stiff and sticky.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Nutsthe original

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