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Linseed Tea

Linseed tea made by simmering linseed and licorice root or by steeping linseed, sugar, and lemon in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Linseed Tea

Why it works: Sugar and lemon 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 ↓

Linseed Tea

Ingredients

Directions

Make the decoction

  1. Combine 1 cup linseed and 2 ounces liquorice root in a pot.

  2. Pour 3 pints boiling water over the mixture and simmer for 1.5 hours.

Make the lemon infusion

  1. Mix 4 tablespoons linseed, 4 lumps sugar, and the rind and juice of 1 lemon in a quart of boiling water.

  2. Let it stand for 30 minutes, then strain and serve cold in a jug.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon 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

Linseed
Its mucilage thickens the water and gives the tea a soft, slightly viscous body.
Liquorice root
Adds a sweet, earthy flavour that rounds out the tea.
Lemon
Its juice adds acidity and its rind adds bright aroma.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the lemon's acidity.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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