Name: Wine Bitters
Ingredients: thin peel of 1 lemon; thin peel of 1 bitter orange; 3 oz. Cape sherry; 2 oz. water

Why it works: Lemon and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,273 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Wine Bitters

Ingredients

thin peel of 1 lemon
thin peel of 1 bitter orange
3 oz. Cape sherry
2 oz. water

Directions

Combine the lemon peel and bitter orange peel in a container, then add the Cape sherry and water.
Infuse for several hours or until desired flavor is achieved.

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.

Lemon + sherrytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,273 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Lemon + bitter orangetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Bitter orange + sherrytop 37% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1 recipe

Shared aroma: acetal (cream, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemon peel: Adds bright citrus aroma and a light bitterness to the infusion.
Bitter orange peel: Contributes aromatic oils and a deeper bitter flavor to the infusion.
Cape sherry: Acts as the solvent that extracts flavor compounds from the peels.