Name: Black Currant Tea
Ingredients: 1 dessertspoon black-currant jam; 1 teaspoon lemon juice; 1 teaspoon castor sugar; ½ pint boiling water

Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Black Currant Tea

Ingredients

1 dessertspoon black-currant jam
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon castor sugar
½ pint boiling water

Directions

In a jug, combine the black currant jam, lemon juice, and castor sugar.
Pour the boiling water over the mixture and stir well.
Cover the jug with a plate or saucer and let it sit by the fire for 15 to 20 minutes.
Strain the tea and serve hot as a remedy for a cold, or let it cool to use as a refreshing beverage.

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.

Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Currant + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,270 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,256 recipes

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Black-currant jam: Provides the main fruit flavour and sweetness, and colours the tea.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the fruit flavour and balances the sweetness.
Castor sugar: Sweetens the tea and helps dissolve the jam in the hot water.