Name: Old Bitters, to Stregthen
Ingredients: 1 gallon rye whiskey; 1 pint wild cherries; ½ cup peach kernels or seeds; 1 ounce wormwood (herbs or stalks); 2 teaspoons apple seeds or kernels; ½ ounce Virginia snake root

Why it works: Peach and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 303 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Old Bitters, to Stregthen

Ingredients

1 gallon rye whiskey
1 pint wild cherries
½ cup peach kernels or seeds
1 ounce wormwood (herbs or stalks)
2 teaspoons apple seeds or kernels
½ ounce Virginia snake root

Directions

Smash all ingredients with a hammer.
Mix the smashed ingredients together.
Shake the bottle 3 times a day for 8 to 10 days.
Take 1 tablespoon 2 to 3 times a day after meals.

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.

Peach + appletop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together303 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Rye + appletop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together64 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Rye + peachtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).