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Dessert

Grape Syrup

A sweet syrup made by boiling grapes, straining, and reducing the juice with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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

Prepare the juice

  1. Remove grapes from stems.

  2. Add 1 pint of water for every 4 pounds of grapes.

  3. Cook over moderate heat until grapes are well boiled, keeping the pan covered.

  4. Strain through a fine sieve.

  5. Gently press the grapes.

  6. Let the juice cool.

  7. Cover with a plate.

  8. Let it sit overnight in a wooden or earthen vessel.

  9. Carefully clear off the liquid.

Make the syrup

  1. Add 1 pound of sugar for each pint of juice.

  2. Mix sugar with 1 pint of water for every 4 pounds of grapes.

  3. Stir until partially dissolved.

  4. Heat the mixture over moderate heat, stirring often until nearly boiling.

  5. Let it boil several times, skimming off any foam.

  6. Pour in the grape juice.

  7. Cover and let it nearly boil.

  8. Remove the cover.

  9. Boil the syrup for 15 minutes.

  10. Skim well.

Store

  1. Pour the syrup into a stone jar.

  2. Add grated lemon peel or cinnamon if desired.

  3. Let it sit for one day.

  4. Strain into bottles.

  5. Cork.

  6. Store in a cool place.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Grape + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,412 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Grape + sugartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,490 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Provide the juice that becomes the syrup's flavour and colour.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the syrup and, when boiled, thickens it into a syrup.

The step that matters

Skim well and boil the syrup for 15 minutes. Foam and impurities rise as the juice heats; skimming them keeps the syrup clear. Boiling concentrates the sugar and juice so the syrup keeps better in storage.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (grape, sugar, syrup):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against grape, sugar, syrup. 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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