Name: Flavor for Nectarine Syrup
Ingredients: 4 drops rose oil; 4 drops neroli oil; 20 drops bitter almond oil; 1 teaspoon orange peel oil; ½ teaspoon lemon oil; 1 teaspoon lemon peel tincture; 1 teaspoon orange peel tincture; ⅓ ounce alcohol; black raspberry juice (for coloring)

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Flavor for Nectarine Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Combine all oils and tinctures in a mixing container.
Add alcohol and mix by shaking or stirring.
If desired, add black raspberry juice to achieve the preferred color.
Use the mixture to flavor nectarine syrup.

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.

Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Almond + black raspberrytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,655 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Rose + orangetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together876 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Orange peel oil: Adds a bright citrus aroma that defines the flavor profile.
Bitter almond oil: Contributes a strong, concentrated nutty aroma that carries the blend.
Alcohol: Carries the oils and tinctures so they disperse evenly through the flavoring.
Black raspberry juice: Adds colour to the flavoring, so it can match the preferred shade.

Swap the black raspberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rose, neroli oil, almond, orange, lemon):

Limefits better
Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Black raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rose, neroli oil, almond, orange, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.