Name: Bitters for the Stomach
Ingredients: 1 ounce gentian root; 2 teaspoons cardamom seed; 1 ounce lemon peel; 3 teaspoons Seville orange peel; 1½ pints boiling water

Why it works: Cardamom and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 405 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Bitters for the Stomach

Ingredients

Directions

Bruise the gentian root and cardamom seed together.
Add the lemon peel and Seville orange peel.
Pour boiling water over the ingredients.
Cover and let it stand for 1 hour.
Pour off the clear liquid.
Take a glass of the liquid 2-3 times a day.

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.

Cardamom + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together405 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Cardamom + orangetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together228 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).