Name: Cold Cream
Ingredients: 4 oz sweet almond oil; 3 oz rose water; 2-3 oz white wax; 3 teaspoons spermacetti; 3 teaspoons white rose extract; 5 drops oil of rose; 3 teaspoons lemon juice

Why it works: Almond and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cold Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare a vessel of boiling water on the stove.
Combine all ingredients except the perfume and oil of rose in a bowl.
Place the bowl in the boiling water and let it sit until the wax and spermacetti melt.
Remove the bowl and beat the mixture until it cools, scraping down the sides as needed.
Continue beating for 1 hour, then add the perfume and oil of rose.
Transfer the cream into jars.

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 + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,655 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,465 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Rose + lemontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,174 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).