Name: Linseed Tea
Ingredients: 1 ounce bruised linseed; 2 teaspoons bruised liquorice root; 1 pint boiling water; sliced lemon (optional); sugar-candy (optional)

Linseed Tea

A herbal infusion made from bruised linseed, bruised liquorice root, and boiling water, optionally flavored with lemon and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription

From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients

Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Linseed Tea

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infusion

Place the bruised linseed and bruised liquorice root in a jug.
Pour the boiling water over the ingredients.
Lightly cover the jug and let it sit near a fire for 3 to 4 hours.

Strain and serve

Strain the mixture through linen to prepare for use.
Add sliced lemon and sugar-candy for better flavor, if desired.

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.

Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Linseed: Its mucilage thickens the water slightly, giving the tea a soothing, smooth body.
Liquorice root: Adds a natural sweetness and earthy aroma to the infusion.

“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.