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 Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the must
Mash the ripe grapes and add ½ gallon of warm water.
Let the mixture stand for 24 hours, stirring two or three times.
Strain and sweeten
Strain the mixture and add 3 pounds of sugar for every gallon of juice.
Ferment and age
Place the juice in jars or bottles, skimming twice a day and filling to the top until fermentation ceases.
Seal tightly for three months.
Rack and bottle
After three months, pour off into a clean vessel, add a lump of sugar, and strain into bottles after one week.
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
- Ripe grapes
- Provide the juice, natural sugars and flavour that the fermentation works on.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast, which turns it into alcohol and carbon dioxide, and adds sweetness.
The step that matters
Filling the jars to the top until fermentation ceases. Keeping the juice full limits its contact with air. Less air means fewer spoilage microbes and acetic bacteria, which can turn the wine sour or vinegary while it ferments.
“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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