Name: Species for Making Bitters
Ingredients: ½ ounce Gentian root; ½ ounce Peruvian bark; 2 teaspoons orange peel; ¼ teaspoon white cinnamon; 2 bottles white wine

Why it works: Orange and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,437 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Species for Making Bitters

Ingredients

Directions

Combine Gentian root, Peruvian bark, orange peel, and white cinnamon in a bowl.
Pour the mixture into two bottles of white wine.
Seal the bottles and let them infuse for several days before using.

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.

Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,437 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Orange + white winetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together730 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cinnamon + white winetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together560 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).