Why it works: Sumac and spirit work together. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Ointment for Ulcerated Liver, Ague Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Boil smartweed, wormwood, and sumac root together to extract their strength.
Strain the mixture and boil it down to about ½ pint.
Add lard and simmer together.
When nearly cool, stir in spirits of turpentine.
Apply the ointment at night by rubbing it over the affected area, heating it with a stove or heated iron, and repeating the application three to four times.
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.
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Sumac + spirittop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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