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Dessert

Grape Sweetmeats

A sweet preserve made from grape pulp, skins, and sugar, boiled until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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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 ↓

Grape Sweetmeats

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pulp

  1. Squeeze the pulp from the skins of each grape, placing the pulp in one bowl and the skins in another.

  2. Heat the grape pulp in a porcelain-lined kettle over low heat for about 15 minutes until the seeds come out easily.

  3. Press the pulp and juice through a coarse sieve to remove the seeds.

Cook and set

  1. Return the pulp and skins to the kettle, bring to a boil, and add the sugar.

  2. Continue boiling for about 30 minutes until the mixture is thick and dark in color; if not thick enough, boil for an additional 15 minutes.

  3. Pour into jars or glasses, let cool, then seal with covers and store.

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 + sugartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Black grapes
Provide the fruit pulp, skins, and juice that form the body and flavor of the sweetmeats.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and, through prolonged boiling, thickens it into a firm, dark spread.

The step that matters

Boiling until thick. Sugar and fruit pectin set only as water evaporates during boiling. Stopping too early leaves the mixture runny, so it should be cooked until it is visibly thick and dark.

“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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