Name: Depression of Spirits, to Cure
Ingredients: 4 oz. hartshorn; 1 oz. cinnamon; 1½ oz. bruised cardamoms; 2 oz. caraway seeds; 4 oz. saffron; 1 quart sherry wine; 1 quart brandy; 4 oz. sugar candy

Why it works: Cardamom and saffron match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 342 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Depression of Spirits, to Cure

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse hartshorn, cinnamon, cardamoms, caraway, saffron, sherry, and brandy in a stone jar, tightly sealed, for 48 hours.
Strain the mixture into a cold still and let it drip onto the sugar candy.
Transfer the liquid into small bottles, cork, and seal them.
Adjust the dose according to the patient's age and condition; typically, half a wineglass in a little water is recommended.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Cardamom + saffrontop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together342 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Cinnamon + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,299 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Cinnamon + saffrontop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together406 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cardamom + carawaytop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together40 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Caraway + saffrontop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together35 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the caraway

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, cardamom, saffron, sherry, wine, brandy, sugar):

Clovebetter flavor fit
Nutmegbetter flavor fit
Gingerbetter flavor fit
Carawaythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, cardamom, saffron, sherry, wine, brandy, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).