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Drink

Grape Shrub

A sweetened vinegar drink made by fermenting grapes with cider vinegar, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Grape Shrub

Ingredients

Directions

Macerate the grapes

  1. Break the grapes and place them in a stone jar.

  2. Cover the grapes with cider vinegar and seal the jar tightly.

  3. Press and stir the grapes frequently for 3 days.

Strain and sweeten

  1. Strain the mixture through a cheesecloth bag, then through a thicker cloth.

  2. Add 5 pounds of sugar to the 3 quarts of juice.

Cook and bottle

  1. Heat the mixture on the stove, skim, and boil for 10 minutes.

  2. Seal the mixture while hot and add water to taste.

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. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Grape + cidertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together349 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Grape + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,589 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  5. 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

Grape juice
Provides the main liquid and fruity flavor base of the shrub.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the syrup by binding water.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity and tang that balances the sweetness and aids preservation.

The step that matters

Heat, skim and boil. Boiling fully dissolves the sugar into the juice and vinegar, while skimming removes foam and loose solids that could spoil the syrup. Boiling also reduces the number of microorganisms, helping the shrub keep.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cider, vinegar):

  1. Applefits better
  2. Plumfits about as well
  3. Pineapplefits about as well
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cider, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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