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 ↓
Grape Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the must
Mash the grapes in a large container.
Add 1 quart of boiling water to the mashed grapes and let it stand for 24 to 48 hours, stirring occasionally until it ferments.
Press the mixture to extract the juice.
Ferment and bottle
Dissolve 3 pounds of sugar in 1 pint of cold water and add it to the juice.
Let the mixture stand until fermentation is complete, about 2 weeks, skimming often.
Bottle and cork the wine.
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
- Provide the juice and natural sugars that yeast ferments into alcohol.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast, driving fermentation and adding sweetness and alcohol.
The step that matters
Let the mixture stand until fermentation is complete. Wine must finish fermenting before bottling; bottling early can leave residual sugar that keeps fermenting, building pressure and risking bursting bottles.
“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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