Name: Fig Lemoxade
Ingredients: 2 moist dried figs, cut in half; 1 quart cold water; ½ lemon, peeled and cut into thin slices; 1 teaspoon honey

Why it works: Fig and honey work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 228 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fig Lemoxade

Ingredients

2 moist dried figs, cut in half
1 quart cold water
½ lemon, peeled and cut into thin slices
1 teaspoon honey

Directions

Place the figs in a stew-pan with the cold water.
Boil for 15 minutes.
Add the lemon peel and lemon slices, then boil for 2 more minutes.
Pour the mixture into a jug and cover with paper until cool.
Strain through a sieve and stir in the honey.

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 + honeytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together228 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Fig + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together763 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Lemon + honeytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,707 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried figs: Give the lemonade its fruity flavour and natural sweetness as they simmer in the water.
Lemon: Adds bright acidity and aromatic oils from the peel to balance the sweetness.
Honey: Adds sweetness that rounds out the tartness of the lemon.