Name: Marmalade for a Cough
Ingredients: 6 ounces Malaga raisins; 6 ounces sugar-candy; 1 ounce conserve of roses; 25 drops oil of vitriol; 20 drops oil of sulphur

Why it works: Raisin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Marmalade for a Cough

Ingredients

Directions

Stone the raisins and beat them into a fine paste with the sugar-candy.
Add the conserve of roses, oil of vitriol, and oil of sulphur.
Mix everything well together.
Take about the size of a nutmeg twice a day; a smaller amount is sufficient for children.

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.

Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + rosetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together315 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,584 recipes

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