Why it works: Grape and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,164 recipes. Both carry anethole, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓
Wild Grape Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Pick wild grapes from the stem.
Run the grapes through a sieve to remove seeds and skins.
Add 1 cup of sugar for every quart of grape pulp and cook for 15 minutes.
Can the mixture for later use.
To make the pie, line a pie plate with crust.
Sprinkle a little sugar and a dust of cinnamon in the crust.
Fill the plate half full with the grape mixture.
Place strips of crust across the top of the pie.
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.
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Grape + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,164 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Grape + sugartop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,490 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Swap the grape
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Grapethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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