Name: Soup-herb Spirit
Ingredients: ½ ounce Lemon Thyme; ½ ounce Winter Savory; ½ ounce Sweet Marjoram; ½ ounce Sweet Basil; ¼ ounce Lemon Peel, grated; ¼ ounce Eschalots; 1 teaspoon Celery Seed; 1 pint Brandy or Proof Spirit

Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Soup-herb Spirit

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse

Combine Lemon Thyme, Winter Savory, Sweet Marjoram, Sweet Basil, grated Lemon Peel, Eschalots, and Celery Seed in a jar.
Pour 1 pint of Brandy or Proof Spirit over the herbs.
Seal the jar and let it infuse for 10 days.

Finish

Strain the mixture before use.

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.

Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,225 recipes

Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
Thyme + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together780 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Winter savory + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together455 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together688 recipes

Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,768 recipes

Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemon thyme: Adds a bright, citrusy herbal aroma to the spirit.
Winter savory: Contributes a peppery, resinous herbal aroma.
Sweet basil: Contributes a sweet, aromatic herbal flavor.
Brandy or proof spirit: Acts as the solvent that extracts flavor from the herbs.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, thyme, winter savory, marjoram, basil, brandy):

Sagefits better
Rosemaryfits better
Parsleyfits better
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, thyme, winter savory, marjoram, basil, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.