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Dessert

Grape Butter

A sweet preserve made from grapes, sugar, water, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Grape Butter

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Grape Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the grapes thoroughly.

  2. Add water and heat until warm.

  3. Rub the mixture through a colander to remove stems and skins. Pass it through a sieve to remove seeds.

Cook

  1. Measure the grape puree and add half the amount of sugar.

  2. Cook until it reaches your desired consistency.

  3. If desired, add spices while boiling.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Grape + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Grape + allspicetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together753 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Grapes
Provide the fruit puree that forms the body and main flavour of the butter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it cooks down, helps thicken the butter and keep it stable.
Ground cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice flavour to the butter.
Ground allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the butter.
Ground nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the butter.

The step that matters

Cook until it reaches your desired consistency. As the puree simmers, water evaporates and the sugar concentrates, which thickens the butter. Stopping too early leaves it runny, while cooking too long makes it stiff and dense.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, clove, allspice, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, allspice, nutmeg. 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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