Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Grape Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Remove grapes from stems.
Add 1 pint of water for every 4 pounds of grapes.
Cook over moderate heat with the pan covered until grapes are well boiled.
Strain through a fine sieve.
Gently press the grapes.
Let the juice cool.
Cover the juice with a plate.
Let it sit overnight in a wooden or earthen vessel.
Clear the juice.
Make the syrup
For each pint of juice, add 1 pound of broken loaf sugar.
Combine the sugar with 1 pint of water for every 4 pounds of sugar in a pan.
Stir until partially dissolved.
Heat the mixture over moderate heat.
Stir often until nearly boiling.
Let it boil several times.
Skim off any foam.
Pour in the grape juice.
Cover the pan until it nearly boils.
Remove the cover.
Let it boil for 15 minutes.
Skim well.
Bottle and store
Pour the syrup into a stone jar.
Add grated lemon or broken cinnamon if desired.
Let it sit for one day.
Strain into bottles.
Cork the bottles.
Store in a cool place.
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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Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Grape + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,164 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
-
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Syrup + cinnamontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together990 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 fruity flavor that form the base of the syrup.
- Loaf sugar
- Provides sweetness and body, thickening the juice into a syrup.
The step that matters
Stir often until nearly boiling. Sugar dissolved in liquid can scorch on the bottom of the pan if it is not stirred while heating. Undissolved sugar crystals can also remain and later recrystallize in the syrup, so the sugar must be fully dissolved before the juice is added.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (grape, sugar, syrup, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Applefits better
- Pearfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against grape, sugar, syrup, cinnamon. 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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