Name: Diuretic Beer
Ingredients: 1 quart elderberry juice; 1 quart sweet cider; 1 pint honey; 1/2 cup yeast; 4 oz essence of golden rod; 4 oz essence of wintergreen; 4 oz essence of juniper berries; 1 pint Holland gin

Why it works: Cider and honey work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 256 recipes. Both carry ethyl decanoate, which smells grape, waxy. The science ↓

Diuretic Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Combine elderberry juice, sweet cider, honey, and yeast in a large container.
Shake until thoroughly mixed and let it stand until it ferments.
Add essence of golden rod, essence of wintergreen, essence of juniper berries, and Holland gin.
Mix well and bottle 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.

Cider + honeytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together256 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).
Elderberry + honeytop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Honey + gintop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together41 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Cider + gintop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).
Elderberry + cidertop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).