Name: Milk Weed, Horseradish, Elder Bark, Etc.
Ingredients: 1 ounce milk weed root; 1 ounce horseradish; 1 ounce mandrake root; 1 ounce black elder bark; 1 ounce juniper berries; 1 ounce dwarf elder root or bark; 1 ounce bitter sweet root bark; ½ ounce mustard; 1 gallon hard cider

Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Milk Weed, Horseradish, Elder Bark, Etc.

Ingredients

Directions

Combine all the herbs and mustard in a large bowl.
Pour 1 gallon of hard cider over the mixture.
Press the mixture together to combine well.
Take ⅓ cup on an empty stomach three times a day.

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.

Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,832 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Mustard + cidertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,414 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Horseradish + cidertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together338 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + cidertop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together342 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Milk + mustardtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,658 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).