Name: Scotch Rum Brose
Ingredients: 1 oz Scotch rum; 2 tablespoons coarse Scotch oatmeal; 1 tablespoon honey; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 cup boiling water

Why it works: Rum and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,007 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scotch Rum Brose

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brose

Mix the butter and oatmeal together in a bowl.
Pour the boiling water into a large container.
Stir in the honey until dissolved.
Add the oatmeal mixture, then the rum.

Serve

Ladle into small glasses and serve.

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.

Rum + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,007 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Rum + honeytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together110 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Honey + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,327 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Oatmeal: Gives the drink its body and thickens it as it soaks in the hot water.
Honey: Adds sweetness and rounds out the flavour of the rum.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Scotch rum: Provides the main alcoholic flavour and aroma.
Boiling water: Dissolves the honey and softens the oatmeal, forming the liquid base.

“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.