Name: Coriander Dragees
Ingredients: coriander seeds; ½ cup vinegar; clarified sugar; gum

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 ↓

Coriander Dragees

Ingredients

coriander seeds
½ cup vinegar
clarified sugar
gum

Directions

Warm the coriander seeds in a pan over the fire.
Add ⅓ cup of vinegar and stir until dry.
Boil clarified sugar in another pan.
Once the coriander is dry, add a little gum and repeat until they are coated to your desired size.
Wash the coriander seeds and warm them again.
Pour the boiled sugar from a height into the pan while stirring the dragees until they are well coated.
Remove the dragees and place them in the stove to finish drying.

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).
Coriander + vinegartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,829 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Coriander + sugartop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,749 recipes

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