Name: Cream of Roses
Ingredients: 1 pound olive oil; 50 drops attar of roses; 25 drops oil of rosemary; alkanet root (for coloring)

Why it works: Olive and rosemary are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,590 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cream of Roses

Ingredients

1 pound olive oil
50 drops attar of roses
25 drops oil of rosemary
alkanet root (for coloring)

Directions

Mix the olive oil, attar of roses, and oil of rosemary together.
Add alkanet root to achieve the desired color.

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.

Olive + rosemarytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,590 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Rose + rosemarytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together93 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Olive + rosetop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together153 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).