Skip to main content
Dessert

Heavenly Jam

A sweet grape and orange jam with raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Heavenly Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Pulp the grapes.

  2. Scald the pulp.

  3. Strain the pulp through a sieve.

  4. Grate the rind from the oranges.

  5. Extract the orange juice.

Cook the jam

  1. Combine the grape skins, strained pulp, raisins, orange juice, and grated orange rind in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture for 20 to 30 minutes.

  3. Add the sugar and chopped walnuts.

  4. Boil for an additional 5 minutes or until it jells on a spoon.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Walnut + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Concord grapes
Provide the pulp and skins that form the jam's base and characteristic flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and set as it boils.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy body to the jam.
Unshelled walnuts
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor throughout the jam.
Oranges
Contribute acidity and bright citrus aroma from the juice and rind.

The step that matters

Boil for an additional 5 minutes or until it jells on a spoon.. Sugar and pectin set only at the right concentration, so undercooking leaves the jam runny while overcooking makes it stiff and sticky. Testing on a cold spoon shows when it has reached setting point.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, raisin, walnut, orange, cinnamon, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, walnut, orange, cinnamon, clove. 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.

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesOrange Cream Rice PuddingOrange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipesOrange GelatinOrange Gelatin100 recipesOrange SherbetOrange Sherbet73 recipes