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Drink

Sage, Balm, or Rosemary Tea

A herbal tea made by infusing sage, balm, and rosemary leaves in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Sage and rosemary match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 465 recipes mention both. Both carry 1,8-cineol, which smells eucalyptus, camphor. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Infuse a handful of the leaves in boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes.

  2. Decant the liquid in the usual manner.

  3. Sweeten with sugar if desired.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Sage + rosemarytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1,8-cineol (eucalyptus, camphor).

  2. Rosemary + sugartop 25% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together568 recipes

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

  3. Sage + sugartop 28% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together538 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

What each ingredient does

Sage leaves
Provides the main aromatic flavour of the tea.
Balm leaves
Adds a light, lemony aroma to the infusion.
Rosemary leaves
Contributes a resinous, piney aroma to the infusion.

“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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