Name: Cahphor Ice
Ingredients: ½ ounce sperm; 1 ounce white wax; 2 ounces sweet almond oil or cottonseed oil; ½ ounce camphor; 4 drops oil of bitter almonds; 8 drops oil of mace

Why it works: Almond and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,010 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Cahphor Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Melt sperm, white wax, and sweet almond oil (or cottonseed oil) together over gentle heat.
Add camphor when melted and partially cooled.
Stir in oil of bitter almonds and oil of mace.
Pour the mixture into molds and let it set.

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.

Almond + macetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,010 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Almond + camphortop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together85 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Camphor + macetop 36% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12 recipes