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Dessert

Grape Preserve

A preserve made by stewing grapes and sugar until the mixture thickens.

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 Preserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pulp

  1. Remove grapes from stems.

  2. Pop the pulps from the skins, using one in each hand.

  3. Place the pulp in a porcelain kettle.

  4. Gently stew until the seeds loosen.

  5. Strain the pulp through a sieve.

  6. Rub the pulp with the skins and weigh the mixture.

  7. Add 1 pound of sugar for every pound of mixture.

Cook the skins and sugar

  1. Put the skins and juice in a kettle.

  2. Cover the kettle.

  3. Cook slowly until the skins are tender.

  4. Add the sugar while still boiling.

  5. Move the kettle back to avoid boiling again.

  6. Keep the mixture very hot for 15 minutes.

Can

  1. Pour the fruit into cans.

  2. Screw down the covers immediately.

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

Grapes
Provide the fruit flesh, juice and skins that form the jam's body and flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it set into a thick, spreadable texture.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture very hot for 15 minutes after adding the sugar. Sugar must dissolve fully in the boiling mixture and the jam must stay very hot so it sets properly and is safe to seal. Letting it cool or boil unevenly can leave the texture runny or grainy.

“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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