Name: Sitfast on Horses
Ingredients: ½ pint brandy; ½ pint honey; 2 ounces alum; ¼ ounce blue stone; 2 tablespoons spirits of turpentine; 1 pint spring water; ½ ounce sugar of lead; 1 ounce alum; ½ ounce copperas

Why it works: Brandy and spirit work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 209 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Sitfast on Horses

Ingredients

Directions

Mix brandy, honey, and alum for the first mixture.
For the second mixture, combine blue stone, spirits of turpentine, and spring water.
For the third mixture, mix sugar of lead, alum, and copperas.
Wash the affected area twice a day with the chosen mixture.
After washing, clean the area with soap and water.

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.

Brandy + spirittop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together209 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Honey + spirittop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together79 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Brandy + honeytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together169 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Honey + sugartop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,932 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Brandy and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Vegetable Soup350 recipes

Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes

Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes

Blackberry Cordial129 recipes

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Sitfast on Horses