Name: Cough Syrup
Ingredients: 1 ounce boneset; 1 ounce slippery elm; 1 ounce flaxseed; 1 stick licorice; 1 quart water; 1 pint molasses; ½ pound loaf sugar

Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cough Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer boneset, slippery elm, flaxseed, and licorice in water until the strength is extracted.
Strain the mixture carefully.
Add molasses and loaf sugar to the strained liquid.
When cool, bottle the syrup.
Take one tablespoonful four 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.

Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flaxseed + licoricetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together23 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Licorice + sugartop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together76 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flaxseed + sugartop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together233 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Licorice + molassestop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together22 recipes