Name: Spiced Syrup of Rhubarb, Etc.
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon spiced syrup of rhubarb; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon cloves; white sugar to taste; bark of blackberry root; bark of cherry tree; strawberry root; leaves of blackberry, cherry, and strawberry

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Spiced Syrup of Rhubarb, Etc.

Ingredients

Directions

Apply a mustard poultice to the stomach and spinal column for severe vomiting.
For diarrhea, give 1 teaspoon of spiced syrup of rhubarb every half hour until it acts on the bowels.
After it acts, give every 3 to 4 hours.
Prepare a tea with the barks and leaves, adding cinnamon and cloves.
Sweeten the tea with white sugar.

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Blackberry + strawberrytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together222 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, sweet).
Rhubarb + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together279 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Rhubarb + strawberrytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together193 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Blackberry + cherrytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together57 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Swap the strawberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, rhubarb, cinnamon, clove, sugar, blackberry, cherry):

Vanillafits better
Blueberryfits better
Figfits better
Strawberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, rhubarb, cinnamon, clove, sugar, blackberry, cherry. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.