Name: Cough Syrup
Ingredients: 2 handfuls horehound; 2 handfuls wild cherry bark; 1 gallon water; 1 lb rock candy; 1 lb white sugar; 1 piece best licorice; 1 pint best baking molasses; optional: a little boneset if patient is nervous

Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cough Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Combine horehound and wild cherry bark in a pot with 1 gallon of water.
Boil the mixture down and strain it.
Add rock candy, white sugar, licorice, and baking molasses to the strained liquid.
Boil all ingredients together until it reaches a syrupy consistency.
Use stone or earthenware for boiling.

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.

Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cherry + sugartop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,598 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + licoricetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together76 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cherry + molassestop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together94 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Licorice + molassestop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together22 recipes