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A Refreshing Drink in a Fever

A herbal tea made with tea-sage, balm, wood sorrel, lemon, and sugar, served hot for fever relief.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 887 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

A Refreshing Drink in a Fever

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and dry the tea-sage, balm, and wood sorrel.

  2. Peel the lemon, removing the white pith, and slice it.

Steep

  1. Add a piece of lemon peel to the herbs in a stone jug.

  2. Pour in the boiling water, sweeten to taste, and cover the jug.

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.

  1. Sage + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

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

  2. Sage + sorreltop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together23 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Sorrel + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together149 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Tea + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together610 recipes

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

  5. Tea + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together53 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tea-sage
Supplies the main aromatic, herbal flavour as its oils infuse into the hot water.
Balm
Adds a light, lemony aroma that brightens the herbal base.
Wood sorrel
Contributes a sharp, sour flavour that balances the sweetness.
Lemon
Adds citrus aroma and acidity from the peel, lifting the overall flavour.

The step that matters

Cover the jug while the herbs steep. Covering the jug keeps the volatile aromatic compounds from escaping with the steam, so the tea tastes fuller and more fragrant.

Swap the sorrel

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tea, sage, lemon, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Sorrelthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tea, sage, lemon, sugar. 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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