Name: Glycerine and Honey Jelly
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon soft soap; ⅓ cup English honey; ½ cup glycerine; 2 tablespoons pure olive oil; 2 tablespoons almond oil; 5 drops otto of rose; ½ cup distilled water

Why it works: Olive and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,875 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Glycerine and Honey Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Dissolve the soft soap and honey in the glycerine and distilled water mixture.
Mix the olive oil and almond oil, then gradually stir them into the other mixture.

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.

Olive + almondtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,465 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Honey + almondtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,069 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Honey + rosetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together94 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Honey + olivetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,792 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).