Name: Hop Syrup for a Cough
Ingredients: 1 oz hops; 1 pint water; 1 tablespoon flaxseed; ½ pint molasses or brown sugar

Why it works: Flaxseed and molasses work together. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Hop Syrup for a Cough

Ingredients

1 oz hops
1 pint water
1 tablespoon flaxseed
½ pint molasses or brown sugar

Directions

Boil hops, water, and flaxseed until reduced to half.
Strain the mixture.
Add molasses or brown sugar and boil until thick.

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.

Flaxseed + molassestop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together41 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Hops + molassestop 41% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5 recipes
Hops + flaxseedtop 81% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together0 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).