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 Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the must
Bruise the grapes and combine with water in a container.
Let it stand for one week without stirring.
Strain and sweeten
Strain the mixture and let the liquid drip through a bag.
Add 3 pounds of sugar to the liquid and stir until fully dissolved.
Transfer the mixture to a jar, filling it completely.
Ferment
Do not cork the jar until it stops hissing, which may take three weeks to a month.
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
- Provide the fruit juice and natural yeasts that start the fermentation.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
The step that matters
Do not cork the jar until it stops hissing. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide that builds pressure in a sealed jar. Corking too early can trap gas and risk the cork or jar bursting, so wait until bubbling has stopped.
“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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