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 ↓
Isabella Grape Jam
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the grapes
Squeeze the pulp out of the grape skins.
Cook the pulp for a few moments.
Press the cooked pulp through a sieve to remove the seeds.
Cook the skins
Add a little water to the skins.
Cook the skins until they are tender.
Finish the jam
Combine the skins and pulp.
Add 1 pound of sugar for each pint of mixture.
Boil for 15 minutes.
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
- Grapes
- Supply the fruit flavour, with the pulp and skins forming the body of the jam.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jam and, once boiled, helps it thicken and keep well.
The step that matters
Boil for 15 minutes. Boiling evaporates water and concentrates the sugar and fruit solids. Too little boiling leaves the jam runny and prone to spoiling, while the sugar must be fully dissolved first so it does not crystallise.
“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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