Name: Compound Spirits Op Lavender
Ingredients: 2 drachms dried lavender flowers; 2 drachms nutmeg; 2 drachms mace; 2 ounces cloves; 2 ounces cinnamon; 1 quart spirits; loaf sugar (to taste); water (to mix)

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Compound Spirits Op Lavender

Ingredients

Directions

Pulverize the dried lavender flowers, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and cinnamon.
Add the pulverized mixture to 1 quart of spirits.
Let it stand for a week.
Strain off the liquid.
Take 1 or 2 teaspoons in a little water with loaf sugar as needed.

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.

Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lavender, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, spirit, sugar):

Allspicefits better
Cardamomfits better
Gingerfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lavender, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, spirit, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.