Why it works: Sugar and grape 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 ↓
To Candy Fruits
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Dip each lump of sugar into a bowl of water.
Place the sugar in a preserving kettle.
Prepare the fruits by drying them if using preserved fruits.
Cook and coat
Boil the sugar until clear and reaches candy height, skimming as needed.
Dip the fruits into the hot sugar and place them in a cold area to harden.
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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Sugar + grapetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Best loaf sugar
- Dissolves and boils into a syrup that hardens into a clear, crisp candy coating.
- Fruits
- Provide the flavour and texture that the hardened sugar coating encloses.
The step that matters
Boil the sugar to candy height. If the syrup is boiled too little it stays soft and sticky, and if boiled too long it turns brittle or colours. Reaching the right temperature, and skimming off impurities, determines whether the coating sets clear and hard when the fruit is dipped and cooled.
“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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