Name: Royal Posset— for a Cold
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon Robinson’s Patent Groats; ⅓ cup cold water; ½ pint ordinary sherry wine; honey to taste; a few cloves

Why it works: Wine and honey work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 606 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutanoic acid ethyl ester, which smells sweet, green. The science ↓

Royal Posset— for a Cold

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the groats with cold water in a bowl.
Pour the mixture into a saucepan with sherry wine.
Sweeten with honey and add cloves.
Stir the mixture over heat and boil for six minutes.
Drink it hot just before going to bed.

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.

Wine + honeytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together606 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutanoic acid ethyl ester (sweet, green).
Sherry + clovetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,237 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Sherry + honeytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Wine + clovetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,958 recipes

Shared aroma: cis-isoeugenol (clove, spicy).
Honey + clovetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together736 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).