Name: Gingerbread
Ingredients: 3 ounces freshly grated ginger; 1 ounce lemon peel, cut thin; 1 quart French brandy; honey; brown treacle

Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Gingerbread

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the grated ginger and lemon peel in a quart of French brandy.
Let the mixture stand for ten days, shaking it daily.
For a dose, take ½ cup of the essence with hot water 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.

Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ginger + honeytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,163 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Brandy + honeytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together169 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Lemon + honeytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,707 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ginger + brandytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together905 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).