Name: Laxative Fig Conserve
Ingredients: 1 pound figs, chopped fine; 1 ounce powdered senna leaves; 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds, pulverized; ½ pint molasses

Why it works: Fig and cardamom share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 36 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Laxative Fig Conserve

Ingredients

1 pound figs, chopped fine
1 ounce powdered senna leaves
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds, pulverized
½ pint molasses

Directions

Boil the molasses in a saucepan.
Add the chopped figs, powdered senna leaves, and cardamom seeds.
Stir well and keep in jelly tumblers.

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.

Fig + cardamomtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together36 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Fig + molassestop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together319 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Cardamom + molassestop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).