Why it works: Fennel and honey work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 99 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓
English Sack
Ingredients
Directions
Make the liquid
Boil water with rue and fennel root for 30 minutes.
Strain the mixture.
Add honey to every quart of the strained liquid.
Boil for 2 hours, skimming well.
Age and bottle
Pour the mixture into a clean cask.
Let it age for 1 year before bottling.
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.
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Fennel + honeytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together99 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Honey
- Provides the fermentable sugar that becomes alcohol, and the main sweetness of the finished drink.
- Water
- Forms the bulk of the liquid and carries the honey and herb flavours.
- Fennel root
- Adds a mild aniseed-like aroma to the finished drink.
- Rue
- Adds a bitter, herbal flavour that balances the honey's sweetness.
The step that matters
Skimming while boiling for 2 hours. Boiling honey and water pulls impurities and foam to the surface. Skimming them off keeps the finished liquid clearer and reduces off-flavours before the long ageing begins.
“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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