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Grapes in Brandy

Preserved grapes soaked in a syrup and brandy mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 819 recipes. Both carry 1-p-menthene-8-thiol, which smells grapefruit. The science ↓

Grapes in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the grapes with a piece of the stalk and prick them with a steel pin.

  2. Fill a jar with the prepared grapes.

Make and pour the syrup

  1. In a separate container, mix 2 cups of thick syrup with 1 cup of good spirits of wine.

  2. Pour the syrup mixture over the grapes in the jar.

Seal

  1. Cover the jar well and seal it tightly.

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. Grape + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together819 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-p-menthene-8-thiol (grapefruit).

  2. Spirit + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together701 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  3. Syrup + spirittop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together141 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Grape + spirittop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Grape + syruptop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Hanepot grapes
Provide the fruit that softens and flavours the spirit-and-syrup mixture.
Thick syrup
Adds sweetness and body, balancing the strength of the spirit.
Spirits of wine
Acts as the preserving liquid and carries the grapes' flavour through the mixture.

The step that matters

Seal the jar tightly. A loose lid lets air in and the spirit evaporates, which can leave the grapes exposed to spoilage. A well-sealed jar keeps the alcohol concentration and the aroma contained while the fruit steeps.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, spirit, wine):

  1. Applefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, spirit, wine. 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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