Name: Chili Paste
Ingredients: ½ teaspoon lavender oil; 1 teaspoon spermaceti; 6 ounces bruised capsicum; 2 pounds olive oil

Why it works: Capsicum and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,677 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Chili Paste

Ingredients

½ teaspoon lavender oil
1 teaspoon spermaceti
6 ounces bruised capsicum
2 pounds olive oil

Directions

Boil the bruised capsicum in the olive oil for 1 hour.
Set the mixture aside in a warm place for 1 week.
Add the spermaceti and gently heat until dissolved.
Strain the mixture and allow it to cool.
Add the lavender oil just before it sets.

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.

Capsicum + olivetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,677 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Lavender + olivetop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together63 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Lavender + capsicumtop 39% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).