Name: Drink to Strengthen the Stomach and Promote Digestion
Ingredients: 1 ounce tincture of rhubarb; 1 ounce tincture of saffron; 1 ounce dulcified spirits of nitre; 1 ounce gentian (powdered); ½ ounce jesuit’s bark (powdered); ½ ounce hiera picra (powdered); ½ ounce prepared steel (powdered); 2 ounces horse spice; 3 pints ale

Why it works: Rhubarb and saffron share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Drink to Strengthen the Stomach and Promote Digestion

Ingredients

Directions

Mix all ingredients in a large container.
Divide the mixture into three equal parts.
Give one part every morning on an empty stomach.
Two hours later, provide a mash and warm water.

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.

Rhubarb + saffrontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Rhubarb + spirittop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together46 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Saffron + spirittop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together69 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Rhubarb + horsetop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Spirit + horsetop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).