Name: Plain or London Gin
Ingredients: 700 gallons second rectification; 70 lbs German juniper berries; 70 lbs coriander seeds; 5 lbs almond cake; 1½ lbs angelica root; 6 lbs liquorice powder

Why it works: Coriander and angelica share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 44 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Plain or London Gin

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the second rectification with the juniper berries, coriander seeds, almond cake, angelica root, and liquorice powder.
Distill the mixture to create the gin.

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.

Coriander + angelicatop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together44 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Almond + angelicatop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together135 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Coriander + almondtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together563 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Second rectification: Serves as the neutral spirit base that carries the botanical flavours into the gin.
German juniper berries: Provide the defining piney, resinous flavour that makes the spirit taste like gin.
Coriander seeds: Add citrusy, slightly spicy aroma to the finished gin.
Almond cake: Adds a soft, nutty note and helps round out the botanical flavour.
Angelica root: Contributes earthy, musky aromatics that give the gin body and depth.
Liquorice powder: Adds subtle sweetness and a dark, rounded flavour to the spirit.