Name: Honey Water Shampoo
Ingredients: 3 eggs; 27 ounces rosewater; 2 ounces tincture of green soap; 160 grains potassium carbonate; 3 teaspoons ammonia water; 2 drops oil of rose; 2 drops oil of bergamot; 1 drop oil of rose geranium; 1 drop oil of bitter almond

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 ↓

Honey Water Shampoo

Ingredients

Directions

Beat the eggs thoroughly.
Mix the beaten eggs with the rosewater.
Add the tincture of green soap, potassium carbonate, and ammonia water.
Incorporate the oils and strain the mixture.

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.

Rose + geraniumtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together64 recipes

Shared aroma: cis-rose oxide (green, flower).
Rose + bergamottop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together61 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Bergamot + geraniumtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Rose + almondtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,465 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).