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Diet Drink for the King’s Evil, and for Sweetening the Blood

Contains antimony, which may pose health risks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Anise and fennel share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 47 recipes. Both carry cis-anethole, which smells anise. The science ↓

Diet Drink for the King’s Evil, and for Sweetening the Blood

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Infuse 10 ounces of sassafras in 2 gallons of water over gentle heat overnight.

  2. The next morning, add all other ingredients to the infused liquor.

  3. Infuse for 2 to 3 hours over gentle heat until reduced to about 6 quarts.

  4. Put 1 pound of antimony in a linen bag and tie it to the pot lid to hang in the infusion.

  5. Once cooled, strain the mixture, let it settle, and bottle for use.

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.

  1. Anise + fenneltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together47 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-anethole (anise).

  2. Cardamom + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together872 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Cardamom + fenneltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Cardamom + anisetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together43 recipes

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

  5. Fennel + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together426 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the borage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rhubarb, cardamom, anise, fennel, coriander):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Boragethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rhubarb, cardamom, anise, fennel, coriander. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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