Name: Stock Tonic
Ingredients: 2 pounds ground ginger; 2 pounds ground gentian; 1 pound powdered red cinchona; 1 pound ground nux vomica; 2 pounds baking soda; 2 pounds powdered wood charcoal; 3 pounds pulverized fenugreek; 2 pounds pulverized anise

Why it works: Fenugreek and anise share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stock Tonic

Ingredients

Directions

Mix all ingredients thoroughly.
For horses, give 1 to 2 tablespoons per dose in feed, 2 to 3 times a day.
For cattle, give 2 to 3 tablespoons per dose in feed, 2 to 3 times a day.
For sheep, give ½ teaspoon per dose in feed, 2 to 3 times a day.
For hogs, give ⅓ teaspoon per dose in feed, 2 to 3 times a day.

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.

Fenugreek + anisetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ginger + fenugreektop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together214 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ginger + anisetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together97 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).