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 Juice
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the grapes
Pick over and wash the grapes, then remove them from the stems.
Heat the grapes slowly until the skins burst, stirring constantly to prevent burning.
Strain and sweeten
Strain the mixture through a cheesecloth.
Add sugar to the juice and stir until dissolved.
Heat the juice to boiling point.
Bottle and seal
Pour into a sterile bottle, cork, and seal immediately.
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
- Concord grapes
- Provide the juice, flavour and natural colour of the drink.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tart flavour of the grape juice.
The step that matters
Heat the grapes slowly while stirring. Grapes scorch easily on the bottom of the pot if heated fast or left unstirred, which gives the juice a burnt taste. Gentle, constant stirring lets the skins burst evenly and releases juice without burning.
“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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