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Dessert

Grape Butter

A preserve made by boiling grapes with sugar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Grape Butter

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 Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Press the finest grapes using a coarse strainer.

Cook and store

  1. Add 1½ pounds of sugar and spices to the extracted grape substance.

  2. Boil slowly for 1 hour, stirring frequently.

  3. Transfer to stone or glass jars and store in a cool place.

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 + 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

Pressed grapes
Provide the fruit base, flavor and body that the butter thickens around.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as the mixture reduces, helps thicken it and preserve it.

The step that matters

Boil slowly and stir frequently. As water evaporates, the sugar and fruit concentrate and can stick and scorch on the base of the pot. Frequent stirring keeps the heat even and prevents burnt flavor.

“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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