Name: Pulmonic Wafers — for Coughs, Colds, Etc.
Ingredients: 7 lbs white sugar; 4 oz tincture or syrup of Ipecac; 2 oz antimonial wine; 10 grains morphine; 1 tablespoon water; 10-15 drops sulphuric acid; 1 oz tincture of blood root; 2 oz syrup of Tolu

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 ↓

Pulmonic Wafers — for Coughs, Colds, Etc.

Ingredients

Directions

Dissolve morphine in water with sulphuric acid.
Mix all ingredients with the sugar as confectioners do for lozenges.
Cut the mixture into ordinary-sized lozenges.
Use 6 to 12 lozenges in 24 hours.

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Syrup + winetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together381 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together9,581 recipes

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