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Dessert

Grape Preserves

A preserve made by boiling grapes with sugar and covering with paraffin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Press the pulp from the grapes.

  2. Place the skins in one pot and the pulp in another pot.

  3. Heat both to boiling point.

  4. Strain the pulp and add it to the skins.

Cook and set

  1. Measure and add ½ pint of sugar for each pint of fruit, then return to the pot.

  2. Boil steadily for 30 minutes.

  3. Pour into jelly glasses.

  4. Cool.

  5. Cover with paraffin.

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 base, flavour, and natural pectin from the skins and pulp.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it concentrates in boiling, helps the preserve thicken and set.
Paraffin
Forms a sealing layer on the surface that keeps air out of the preserve.

The step that matters

Boil steadily for 30 minutes. A steady boil evaporates water and concentrates the sugar and fruit pectin so the preserve sets. Too short a boil leaves it runny, while a longer boil can darken the flavour and make it stiff.

“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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