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Preserved Grapes in Bunches

Preserved grapes in bunches are boiled with clarified sugar syrup and stored in pots.

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 ↓

Preserved Grapes in Bunches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the grapes

  1. Remove the seeds from the grapes using a pin, breaking the bunches as little as possible.

  2. Boil clarified sugar until nearly ready to candy.

Extract the juice

  1. Add grapes to cover the bottom of the pan without overlapping.

  2. Boil for 5 minutes to extract the juice.

  3. Transfer the grapes to an earthen pan.

  4. Pour the syrup over the grapes.

  5. Cover with paper.

  6. Let sit overnight.

Finish and pot

  1. Boil the syrup for 5 minutes.

  2. Skim the syrup well.

  3. Add the grapes back to the syrup.

  4. Boil for 1 minute.

  5. Pour them into pots.

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
The fruit itself, which provides the flavour and texture of the preserve.
Clarified sugar
Forms the syrup that sweetens the grapes and preserves them by drawing out moisture.

The step that matters

Boil the grapes in the syrup for only 1 minute at the end. Sugar syrup preserves fruit by its concentration. Overboiling the grapes at the final stage can break down their skins and soften the flesh, so the short boil keeps them whole while the syrup thickens.

“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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