Name: Milk of Roses
Ingredients: 2 teaspoons blanched almonds; 4 teaspoons curd soap; 2 teaspoons cetaceum; 4 teaspoons almond oil; 4 teaspoons alcohol; 2 teaspoons tincture of benzoin; 5 drops oil of rose; 6 drops oil of rose-geranium; 8 fluid ounces rosewater

Why it works: Rose and geranium work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 64 recipes. Both carry cis-rose oxide, which smells green, flower. The science ↓

Milk of Roses

Ingredients

Directions

Melt the cetaceum and almond oil together.
Add the curd soap and heat until uniform.
Transfer to a warm mortar and gradually add 1 ounce of boiling rosewater.
In another mortar, beat the blanched almonds well.
Add the melted cetaceum to the almond paste and mix thoroughly.
Stir in the remaining hot rosewater to form an emulsion.
Add the oils dissolved in alcohol and tincture, then strain through fine cloth.
Make up to 10 ounces with rosewater passed through the strainer.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Rose + geraniumtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together64 recipes

Shared aroma: cis-rose oxide (green, flower).
Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,465 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Almond + geraniumtop 35% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).