Name: Vegetable Syrup
Ingredients: 1 pound Liverwort; Solomon's seal (quantity unspecified); Skunk cabbage (quantity unspecified); Blood root (quantity unspecified); Water (sufficient quantity); 20 pounds strained honey; 1 pint brandy

Why it works: Honey and brandy work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 169 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Vegetable Syrup

Ingredients

1 pound Liverwort
Solomon's seal (quantity unspecified)
Skunk cabbage (quantity unspecified)
Blood root (quantity unspecified)
Water (sufficient quantity)
20 pounds strained honey
1 pint brandy

Directions

Combine Liverwort, Solomon's seal, Skunk cabbage, Blood root, and sufficient water in a pot.
Boil the mixture and pour off the water until the desired strength is obtained.
Strain the liquid and boil it down to fill twenty porter bottles.
Remove from heat and stir in 1 pint of brandy.
Let the mixture settle, then bottle it for use.

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.

Honey + brandytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together169 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Cabbage + honeytop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81 recipes

Shared aroma: hexan-1-ol (green, grassy).
Cabbage + brandytop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together17 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).