Name: Lavender Water
Ingredients: 1 pint spirits of wine; ½ ounce lavender oil; ½ ounce bergamot; 1 shilling's worth of musk

Why it works: Lavender and bergamot work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 82 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Lavender Water

Ingredients

1 pint spirits of wine
½ ounce lavender oil
½ ounce bergamot
1 shilling's worth of musk

Directions

Combine the spirits of wine, lavender oil, bergamot, and musk in a bottle.
Shake the bottle occasionally.
Allow the mixture to sit; it improves with time.

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.

Lavender + bergamottop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together82 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Spirit + winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together701 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Spirit + bergamottop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together73 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Spirit + lavendertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together122 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Wine + bergamottop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together40 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).