Name: Beer, Restoration of Spoiled
Ingredients: powdered chalk; liquor of boiled raisins; solution of potash; coarsely powdered charcoal; powdered ginger; syrup or molasses

Why it works: Raisin and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,242 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Beer, Restoration of Spoiled

Ingredients

Directions

Pour powdered chalk into the cask and let it sit until fully precipitated.
Add liquor of boiled raisins to disguise the sour taste.
Mix in a small amount of potash solution to remove sourness, but do not overdo it.
If the beer is not completely spoiled, add coarsely powdered charcoal.
If the taste is affected, add a little powdered ginger or syrup/molasses.

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.

Raisin + gingertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,242 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ginger + syruptop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together950 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Raisin + syruptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together336 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).