Name: Clove Lozenges
Ingredients: 1 ounce finely powdered cloves; 2 pounds lump sugar; 1 pound starch; ½ pound powdered gum; weak decoction of Brazil; 1 drachm oil of cloves; 2 pounds white sugar; 1 ounce powdered gum; Brazil-water

Why it works: Clove and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,182 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Clove Lozenges

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

Mix the finely powdered cloves, lump sugar, starch, and powdered gum with a weak decoction of Brazil.
In a separate bowl, mix the oil of cloves, white sugar, and powdered gum with Brazil water as before.

Shape and dry

Shape the mixture into lozenges and allow to dry.

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.

Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together17,182 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Clove and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lump sugar: Provides sweetness and the bulk of the solid body of the lozenge.
Starch: Adds body and helps the mixture hold its shape as it sets.
Powdered gum: Binds the mixture and helps it set firm when dried.
White sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the lozenges set into a hard, dry form.
Finely powdered cloves: Supplies the main spice flavour and aroma.

“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.