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Dessert

Grape Syrup

A sweet syrup made by boiling grapes, straining, and dissolving sugar in the juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Pick the grapes.

  2. Add the grapes to a pot with water.

  3. Cover the pot and heat on moderate heat until the grapes are well boiled.

  4. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve, pressing the grapes gently.

  5. Let the juice cool, then cover with a plate and let it sit overnight.

  6. The next day, carefully clear off the juice.

Make the syrup

  1. For each pint of juice, add 1 pound of broken loaf sugar.

  2. In a pan, combine the sugar with 1 pint of water for every 4 pounds of sugar.

  3. Stir the mixture while cold until the sugar is partially dissolved.

  4. Heat the pan on a brisk fire, covered, stirring occasionally until nearly boiling.

  5. Watch carefully; if it rises too much, pull the pan slightly forward.

  6. Let it boil quickly several times, then moderately, until a thick scum forms at the side of the pan.

  7. Remove the scum cleanly.

  8. Pour the juice into the pan.

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 + sugartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 that becomes the body and flavor of the syrup.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the juice and, once concentrated, gives the syrup its body and preserving character.

The step that matters

Watch the pan as the syrup nears boiling. The mixture can rise suddenly and boil over. Pulling the pan slightly forward lowers the heat under it, and removing the scum cleanly keeps the finished syrup clear.

“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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