Why it works: Dandelion and sugar work together. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 80 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Dandelion Tonic
Ingredients
Directions
Gather dandelion blossoms and let them wilt overnight.
Pour boiling water over the blossoms and let stand for two days.
Strain and drain the liquid.
Add granulated sugar to the liquid and heat until dissolved.
Cover the jar with a cloth and let it stand for three weeks before bottling.
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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Dandelion + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together80 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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