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Grape Conserve

A preserve made from grapes, orange juice and rind, sugar, raisins, and walnuts.

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 grapes

  1. Remove the pulp from the grapes.

  2. Cook the pulp until soft.

  3. Strain the cooked pulp through a colander.

Cook the preserve

  1. Combine the skins and pulp.

  2. Cook the mixture for 10 minutes.

  3. Add the juice and rind of the orange, sugar, and raisins.

  4. Boil for 20 minutes.

Finish

  1. Stir in the English walnuts.

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. Grape + walnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Orange + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Raisin + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 flavour and the body of the preserve.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it concentrates in boiling, helps the preserve thicken and keep.
Orange
Its juice adds acidity and its rind adds a bright citrus aroma.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture.
English walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft fruit.

The step that matters

Boil for 20 minutes. Long boiling drives off water and concentrates the sugar and fruit pectin so the preserve thickens. Stopping early leaves it runny, and boiling too long can make it dark and sticky.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

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