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 ↓
Fox Grape Jelly for Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Remove grapes from stems and wash them.
Place grapes in a kettle and add just enough water to prevent burning.
Cook until soft, then strain through a sieve.
Make the jelly
For every pint of juice, add 1 pint of sugar.
Return to the kettle and boil for 20 minutes, or until it thickens into jelly.
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
- Fox grapes
- Provide the juice, flavor, natural pectin and acid that help the jelly set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and, with pectin and acid, helps the jelly thicken and set.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with sugar until it thickens. Sugar, pectin and acid must reach a concentrated state to gel. Boiling too briefly leaves the jelly runny, while boiling too long can scorch it or make it stiff. Judge by the jelly thickening rather than the clock alone.
“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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