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Grape Conserve

A sweet preserve made from grapes, sugar, raisins, walnuts, and orange slices, cooked until thick.

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. Cook the grapes until the seeds separate from the pulp.

  2. Strain the cooked grapes.

Cook the preserve

  1. Add the skins and pulp to a pot with sugar, raisins, and orange slices.

  2. Cook for about 1.5 hours until thick.

  3. Add the walnuts in the last 30 minutes.

Finish

  1. Pour into jelly glasses.

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. Walnut + orangetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + orangetop 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 pulp and skins that form the body of the preserve.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as the mixture cooks down, helps it thicken and keep.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture throughout the preserve.
English walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft fruit.
Orange
Adds bright acidity and citrus aroma that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook until thick. As water evaporates, the sugar and fruit concentrate and the mixture thickens. Stopping early leaves a runny preserve, while the thickening continues as it cools.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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