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 ↓
Grape Tart
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Bring the grape juice to a boil.
In a small bowl, mix cornstarch with a little water until smooth.
Stir the cornstarch mixture into the boiling grape juice and cook for 5 minutes.
Sweeten the mixture to taste.
Assemble
Pour the filling into the baked pie crust.
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 + sugartop 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
- Grape juice
- Provides the main flavor and liquid that becomes the filling.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the hot juice into a glossy, sliceable filling as it cooks.
- Baked pie crust
- Holds the filling in a firm shell that stays crisp under the liquid.
The step that matters
Stirring the cornstarch into the boiling juice. Cornstarch must be fully smooth before it goes in and the mixture must reach a boil while stirring, or it can clump and fail to thicken evenly. Cooking it fully also removes the raw starch taste.
“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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