Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Grape Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Remove grapes from stems and add 1 pint of water for every 4 pounds of grapes.
Cook over moderate heat until grapes are well boiled, keeping the pan covered.
Strain through a fine sieve.
Gently press the grapes.
Let the strained liquid cool.
Cover the liquid with a plate.
Let it sit overnight in a wooden or earthen vessel.
Carefully clear off the liquid.
Make the syrup
Add 1 pound of sugar for each pint of liquid.
In a pan, mix sugar with 1 pint of water for every 4 pounds of grapes and stir until partially dissolved.
Heat the mixture over moderate heat and stir often until nearly boiling.
Let the mixture boil several times, skimming off any foam.
Add the grape juice.
Cover the pan until it nearly boils.
Remove the cover and boil for 15 minutes, skimming well.
Bottle and store
Pour the syrup into a stone jar.
Add grated lemon or cinnamon if desired.
Let the syrup sit for one day.
Strain the syrup into bottles.
Cork the bottles.
Store in a cool place.
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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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Grape + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,164 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Grape + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,412 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Grapes
- Provide the juice that forms the body and flavour of the syrup.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and, when boiled down, thickens it into a syrup.
The step that matters
Skimming the foam during the boil. Foam rises as impurities and proteins come out of the juice during boiling. Skimming it removes cloudiness and off-flavours, leaving a clearer, cleaner syrup.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (grape, sugar, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Applefits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against grape, sugar, cinnamon. 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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