Name: Hop Cough Syrup
Ingredients: 3 cups boiling water; 1 handful of hops; 1 handful of chestnut leaves; 1½ cups brown sugar

Why it works: Chestnut and sugar work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 647 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Hop Cough Syrup

Ingredients

3 cups boiling water
1 handful of hops
1 handful of chestnut leaves
1½ cups brown sugar

Directions

Boil 3 cups of water.
Add 1 handful of hops and 1 handful of chestnut leaves.
Boil until the mixture reduces to 1½ cups.
Stir in 1½ cups of brown sugar and boil until it thickens to a syrup.

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.

Chestnut + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together647 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Hops + sugartop 43% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Hops + chestnuttop 73% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together0 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).