Name: Linseed Tea
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon whole linseed; 2 pieces loaf sugar; rind and juice of ½ lemon; 1 pint freshly boiled water

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

1 tablespoon whole linseed
2 pieces loaf sugar
rind and juice of ½ lemon
1 pint freshly boiled water

Directions

Place the linseed, loaf sugar, lemon rind, and lemon juice in a jug.
Pour the freshly boiled water over the mixture.
Cover the jug and let it stand until cold.
Strain the tea before serving.

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.

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

Whole linseed: Releases a mucilage into the water that gives the tea its body and slightly thick texture.
Lemon: Adds acidity and bright aroma that balance the sweetness of the tea.
Loaf sugar: Adds sweetness to the tea.

“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.