Name: Grape Water
Ingredients: ½ cup boiling water; 4 tablespoons grape jelly; ½ cup cold water; 1 teaspoon lemon juice; 1 tablespoon sugar; ice

Why it works: Grape and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,412 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Grape Water

Ingredients

Directions

Pour boiling water over the grape jelly and stir until dissolved.
Add cold water, sugar, and lemon juice.
Add enough ice to chill thoroughly.

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.

Grape + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,412 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Grape + sugartop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,490 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Grape jelly: Provides the main grape flavor and sweetness, and dissolves into the hot water to color the drink.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the tartness of the lemon juice and grapes.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the grape flavor and balances the sweetness.