Name: Celery Comfits
Ingredients: Celery seeds; Syrup (prepared without gum); Extra white crystallized sugar

Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Celery Comfits

Ingredients

Celery seeds
Syrup (prepared without gum)
Extra white crystallized sugar

Directions

Ensure celery seeds are clean and place them in a pan over low heat.
Charge the seeds with syrup, working them with both hands until they are the size of a large pin's head.
Dry the seeds in the stove for 36 hours until thoroughly dry.
Return the seeds to the pan and give them 7 or 8 charges of syrup made with extra white crystallized sugar, drying them thoroughly after each charge.
After the final charge, place them in the stove until the next day.
Boil syrup to the 'Pearl' stage and pour it into a small funnel over the pan.
Remove the spigot to allow the syrup to run in a small stream, gently swinging the pan back and forth.
Ensure the syrup does not wet the Comfits too much and finish them as other Comfits.

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.

Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Celery + sugartop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,794 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Celery + syruptop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together63 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).