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Dessert

Grape Conserve

A sweet preserve made from grapes, raisins, oranges, sugar, and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,771 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Grape Conserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the grapes

  1. Wash grapes.

  2. Remove grapes from stems.

  3. Separate pulp from skins.

  4. Cook pulp until very soft.

  5. Press cooked pulp through a sieve.

Make the preserve

  1. In a kettle, combine pulp, skins, raisins (seeded and halved), orange juice, grated rind, and sugar.

  2. Cook until thick, about 20 minutes.

  3. Add walnuts 5 minutes before removing from heat.

  4. Remove from heat.

Jar

  1. Pour into sterile glasses and seal.

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 + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,771 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Grape + walnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  3. Orange + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Raisin + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Grapes
Provide the pulp and skins that give the preserve its body and fruity flavour.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as they soften during cooking.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and helps it thicken and keep well.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty contrast to the soft, jammy fruit.

The step that matters

Cook until thick. Pectin in the grape skins and pulp needs sugar and sustained heat to set. Stopping too early leaves the preserve runny, while overcooking can make it dense and sticky.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (grape, orange, sugar, walnut):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against grape, orange, sugar, walnut. 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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