Name: Marshmallow Lozenges
Ingredients: 1½ pounds loaf sugar; 6-7 ounces rose water; ¼ pound marshmallow pulp; 2 ounces boiled marshmallow root pulp; 3 teaspoons white poppy seeds; 3 teaspoons Florentine iris; 3 teaspoons liquorice; 3 teaspoons powdered gum tragacanth; oil of sweet almonds

Why it works: Poppy seed and almond share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 91 recipes. Both carry 3-methylbutanol, which smells malty, whiskey. The science ↓

Marshmallow Lozenges

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the sugar in rose water until it reaches a solid consistency.
Whisk in the marshmallow pulp off the heat.
Place over gentle heat, stirring constantly to dry up moisture until a good paste forms.
Empty the paste onto oiled paper and roll it out with a rolling pin.
Cut into lozenges using a tin cutter.
For soothing coughs, melt a small lozenge in the mouth.

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.

Poppy seed + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together91 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
Rose + almondtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,465 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,584 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Rose + poppy seedtop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).