Name: Cherry Red
Ingredients: 1 ounce cudbear; 1½ cups water; 1 ounce cream of tartar; 1½ ounces spirits of wine; 2 ounces Dutch grappe madder; 1 ounce alum; 1½ ounces oil of tartar

Why it works: Spirit and wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 701 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Cherry Red

Ingredients

Directions

Boil 1 ounce of cudbear in 1½ cups of water over low heat until reduced to 1 cup.
Add 1 ounce of cream of tartar and simmer again.
When cold, strain the mixture and add 1½ ounces of spirits of wine.
For Dutch grappe madder, tie 2 ounces in a cloth and beat in a mortar with 1 cup of water.
Pour off the liquid and repeat until you have used 4 to 5 cups of water.
Boil the mixture for 10 minutes, then add 1 ounce of dissolved alum in 1 cup of water and 1½ ounces of oil of tartar.
Let it settle, wash the sediment with water, pour off, and dry it.

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.

Spirit + winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together701 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Cream + spirittop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together99 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream + winetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,887 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).