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Dessert

Grape Sweetmeats

A preserved sweet made from grape pulp, skins, and sugar, boiled until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 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 Sweetmeats

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the grapes

  1. Weigh the grapes and separate the pulp from the skins by squeezing them with your fingers.

  2. Place the pulp in a porcelain-lined kettle and heat gradually, stewing gently for about 15 minutes until the seeds come out easily.

  3. Press the pulp and juice through a coarse sieve.

  4. Discard the seeds.

Cook the sweetmeats

  1. Return the pulp and skins to the kettle.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the sugar.

  4. Continue boiling for about 30 minutes until the mixture is a rich dark color and thick; if not, boil for an additional 15 minutes.

Jar and store

  1. Pour the mixture into jars or glasses.

  2. Let the jars cool.

  3. Screw on the covers.

  4. Store.

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

Black grapes
Provide the main fruit flavor, pulp, and skins that give the sweetmeats their body and color.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and, through prolonged boiling, thickens it and deepens its color.

The step that matters

Boiling until thick and dark. Sugar and fruit must reduce long enough for water to evaporate and the mixture to set on cooling. Stopping early leaves it runny and spoilage-prone, so judge thickness and color rather than time alone.

“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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