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 Mine
Ingredients
Directions
Ferment
Crush the grapes well and let them stand for a week without stirring.
Draw off the liquid and add 3 pounds of sugar to the gallon of wine.
Transfer to a vessel but do not seal it until it stops hissing.
Clear and bottle
Let it stand for two months until it draws clear and fine.
If desired, bottle it, ensuring the cork is tightly sealed, and store in a dry cellar.
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
- Grapes
- Supply the juice and skins whose natural yeasts start the fermentation that makes wine.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast, which converts it into alcohol and carbon dioxide, and adds sweetness.
The step that matters
Do not seal the vessel until it stops hissing. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide gas. Sealing too early traps the gas and builds pressure that can break the vessel or force out the cork.
“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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