Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Flaxseed Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Add water to a pot.
Stir in whole flax seed and sugar.
Boil for 1-2 hours.
Strain the mixture.
Add lemon juice or cream to taste.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Whole flax seed
- Releases mucilage into the water, giving the tea its body and slightly thick, soothing texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the earthy flavour of the boiled flax seed.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the tea.
The step that matters
Boil for 1-2 hours. Boiling long enough lets the mucilage leach out of the flax seed so the liquid thickens. Too short a boil gives a thin, weak tea, and the water level should be kept up so the mixture does not reduce too far.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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