Name: Imperial Water
Ingredients: 1 pint boiling water strain when cool; 1 dessert spoonful cream of juice of i a lemon tartar sugar

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 43,437 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Imperial Water

Ingredients

1 pint boiling water strain when cool
1 dessert spoonful cream of juice of i a lemon tartar sugar

Directions

1 dessert spoonful cream of Juice of i a lemon tartar Sugar to taste
Same of gum arabic 1 pint boiling water
Strain when cool.
Dose. — Half a wineglass occasionally.

By Hamilton, Margaret. 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. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Cream + sugartop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together43,437 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Lemon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together53,530 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cream + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together15,638 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Lemon and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 53,530 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar):

Vanillabetter flavor fit
Strawberrybetter flavor fit
Raspberrybetter flavor fit
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).