Why it works: Grape and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,435 recipes. Both carry 3-methylbutanol, which smells malty, whiskey. The science ↓
Grape Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Squeeze the grapes using your hands in a fine sieve to avoid crushing the stones.
Soak the pulp in water until you have enough liquid to fill the cask.
Make the mixture
Dissolve the sugar in boiling water, then let it cool before adding it to the cask with the grape juice and soaked pulp.
Add the bitter almonds, cut small, to the mixture.
Ferment
Allow fermentation to occur, then proceed with adding brandy as needed.
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 + almondtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,435 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + grapetop 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
- Loaf sugar
- Provides the sugar that yeast converts into alcohol during fermentation, and sweetness in the finished wine.
- Grape juice
- Supplies the fermentable sugars, flavour and liquid base of the wine.
- Bitter almonds
- Adds a distinctive aroma and flavour to the wine.
The step that matters
Dissolving the sugar before adding it to the cask. Sugar must dissolve fully and the liquid must cool before it joins the cask, since very hot liquid can harm the yeast and undissolved sugar may not ferment evenly.
Swap the grape
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, almond):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Grapethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, almond. 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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