Name: Vegetable Syrup
Ingredients: 1 Swedish turnip; ½ cup good vinegar; ¼ cup water; 4 ounces sugar candy

Why it works: Vinegar and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Vegetable Syrup

Ingredients

1 Swedish turnip
½ cup good vinegar
¼ cup water
4 ounces sugar candy

Directions

Pare and slice the Swedish turnip.
Place the slices in an earthenware jar.
Cover with vinegar and water.
Add sugar candy and let it infuse overnight, keeping it warm by the fire.
Take ⅓ cup each night and morning.

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.

Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Turnip + vinegartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together652 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Turnip + sugartop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,330 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).