Name: Milk of Roses
Ingredients: 4 ounces sweet almonds; ½ ounce white sugar; 8 ounces rose water; 20 grains bichloride of mercury; 2 ounces alcohol

Why it works: Almond and rose are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,465 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Milk of Roses

Ingredients

Directions

Beat the sweet almonds in a mortar, adding the white sugar gradually until a paste forms.
Slowly add the rose water in small quantities, mixing well.
Strain the mixture through a fine cloth, then pound the residue and strain again.
Repeat the straining process two more times.
To the final 32 ounces of liquid, add the bichloride of mercury dissolved in alcohol and shake for five minutes.
Apply the fluid with a towel after washing the skin, and gently rub with a dry cloth until completely dry.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,465 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,584 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).