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Drink

Linseed Tea

Linseed tea is a warm beverage made by boiling linseed with water and citrus rind, then sweetened and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Linseed Tea

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Linseed Tea

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer

  1. Put the linseed and water in a clean pot.

  2. Add the orange or lemon rind.

  3. Boil gently for about 10 minutes.

Strain and sweeten

  1. Strain through muslin into a jug.

  2. Sweeten with honey or sugar.

  3. Add the lemon juice if desired and stir well.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Orange + honeytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,068 recipes

    Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Honey + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,707 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Linseed
Releases mucilage into the hot water, giving the tea a slightly thick, soothing body.
Orange or lemon rind
Adds fragrant citrus oils that give the tea an aroma.
Honey or sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the earthy flavour of the linseed.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the tea.

The step that matters

Boil gently for about 10 minutes. Linseed swells and releases its mucilage into the water during simmering. A hard, rolling boil can foam over and cloud the tea, so a gentle simmer gives a smoother, more even result.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, honey):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Grapefits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, honey. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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