Name: Cough Syrup
Ingredients: ½ pint pure pine tar; 2 pounds loaf sugar; 1 pint pure cider vinegar

Why it works: Cider and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,431 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Cough Syrup

Ingredients

½ pint pure pine tar
2 pounds loaf sugar
1 pint pure cider vinegar

Directions

Combine sugar and vinegar in a saucepan to make a syrup.
Add the pine tar to the syrup.
Steep the mixture for one hour.

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 + vinegartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,431 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Pine + vinegartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together268 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Sugar + cidertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,308 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pine + sugartop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together309 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).