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Spiced Grapes

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Spiced Grapes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Wash the bunches of grapes carefully.

  2. In a jar, add a thick layer of brown sugar at the bottom.

  3. Layer the grapes on top of the sugar, then sprinkle with whole cloves, allspice, and stick cinnamon.

  4. Continue alternating layers of sugar and grapes until the jar is full.

  5. Place a plate on top, add a weight, and tie a cloth tightly over the top.

  6. Store the jar in a cool place.

  7. Serve the grapes with cold meats and use the syrup for cakes, puddings, or mince pies.

  8. In spring, strain the remaining syrup through a flannel cloth, bottle it, and use it throughout the summer.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Grape + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the grape

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, clove, allspice, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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