Name: Soothing Syrup
Ingredients: 1 pound honey; 2 tablespoons paregoric; 2 tablespoons oil of anise seed; water (enough to make a thick syrup)

Why it works: Honey and anise work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41 recipes. Both carry pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Soothing Syrup

Ingredients

1 pound honey
2 tablespoons paregoric
2 tablespoons oil of anise seed
water (enough to make a thick syrup)

Directions

Combine honey, paregoric, and oil of anise seed in a bowl.
Add enough water to create a thick syrup.
Bottle the mixture for storage.
For teething children, administer 1 teaspoon occasionally.

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.

Honey + anisetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41 recipes

Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).
Honey + syruptop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together325 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Anise + syruptop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together38 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).