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Drink

Flaxseed Tea

A tea made by simmering flaxseed with water and cream of tartar, then sweetened and served with lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flaxseed and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 151 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Flaxseed Tea

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the flaxseed.

  2. Add boiling water and cream of tartar.

  3. Simmer until the liquid is reduced by half.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain and cool.

  2. Add a little syrup and serve with cut lemon.

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.

  1. Flaxseed + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together151 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flaxseed + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Flaxseed + syruptop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together23 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flaxseed
Releases mucilage into the simmering liquid, giving the tea a slightly thick, smooth body.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity, giving the tea a tart edge that balances the syrup.
Syrup
Adds sweetness to soften the tartness of the tea.

The step that matters

Simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. Simmering concentrates the flavour and draws more mucilage from the flaxseed, which sets the tea's body. Stopping too early leaves it thin and weak, while over-reducing makes it sharp and syrupy.

Swap the flaxseed

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, syrup, lemon):

  1. Pistachiofits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Almondfits better
  4. Flaxseedthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, syrup, 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.

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