Name: A Sick Tea
Ingredients: 1 bowl of cracker panada; 1 cup of weak black tea; 1-2 slices of Graham bread; butter to taste; fruit (if allowed)

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

A Sick Tea

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Prepare a bowl of cracker panada.
Brew a cup of weak black tea.

Serve

Serve with 1-2 slices of Graham bread spread with butter.
Add fruit if permitted.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Black tea + buttertop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Black tea + breadtop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cracker panada: Provides a soft, easily digested base that holds moisture and gives the dish its body.
Black tea: Adds mild flavour and warmth as a gentle, lightly astringent drink.
Graham bread: Supplies a soft, bland starch that is easy to eat alongside the tea.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that softens the bread and adds a mild flavour.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.