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Oocymel of Garlic for Asthmatic Complaints

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Caraway and fennel share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 51 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Oocymel of Garlic for Asthmatic Complaints

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil vinegar with caraway and fennel seeds for 15 minutes.

  2. Remove from heat and slice in garlic.

  3. Cover and let it cool.

  4. Strain and express the liquid.

  5. Mix with honey over a water bath until syrupy.

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. Caraway + fenneltop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together51 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Fennel + garlictop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together969 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + honeytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Vinegar + garlictop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Caraway + garlictop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Swap the caraway

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, fennel, garlic, honey):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Carawaythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, fennel, garlic, honey. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.