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Grape Butter

A fruit butter made from grapes and tart apples, sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Grape Butter

Why it works: Grape and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,659 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Grape Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Pick grapes from the stems and cook until soft.

  2. Remove from heat, cool, and press through a colander to remove seeds.

  3. In another kettle, add tart apples and cook until well done.

  4. Press the apple mixture through a colander and mix with the grape pulp.

Cook and seal

  1. If desired, add the skins of the grapes as they will cook down.

  2. Add ¾ pound of sugar to the mixture and cook slowly for 45 minutes.

  3. Put into jars and seal.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + appletop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

  3. Grape + sugartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,490 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Very ripe grapes
Provide the main fruit flavor and pectin-rich pulp that thickens the butter as it cooks.
Tart apples
Add natural pectin and acidity that help the butter set and balance the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the butter and, as it cooks down, helps thicken it into a spreadable texture.

The step that matters

Cook the sugar in slowly. Cooking slowly after adding sugar lets the mixture thicken gradually by evaporation without scorching on the bottom of the pot. Sugar also draws water out of the fruit, so the butter sets as it cools.

Swap the grape

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

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Apricotfits about as well
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, 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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