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Blood Syrup

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cherry and pine share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 80 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Blood Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine all roots in a kettle with water.

  2. Boil slowly for 4 hours.

  3. Strain out the roots and return the liquid to the kettle.

  4. Add loaf sugar and boil slowly for 30 minutes.

  5. When cool, add whiskey.

  6. Bottle and store in a cool place.

  7. Take 1 tablespoonful before meals and 1 before bed for the first week, then twice a day until well.

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.

  1. Cherry + pinetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cherry + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Licorice + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together76 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pine + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together309 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Licorice + pinetop 50% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Swap the licorice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cherry, pine, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Basilfits better
  4. Licoricethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cherry, pine, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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