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 Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the grapes
Pick grapes when about half ripe, preferably Concords.
Remove grapes from stems.
Wash the grapes.
Crush the grapes well.
Cook the crushed grapes in the usual manner.
Strain the mixture.
Make the jelly
Boil the strained juice.
Skim off any foam.
Add 2 cups of sugar to the 3 cups of juice.
Cook as you would for other jellies.
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
- Grape juice
- Provides the liquid and the fruit flavour that the jelly is built on.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set by binding water and pectin.
The step that matters
Cook as you would for other jellies. Sugar and pectin only set when enough water is driven off by boiling to reach the gel point. Stopping too early leaves a runny jelly, while cooking too long can make it stiff or sugary.
“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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