Name: Syrup Very Successful
Ingredients: 1 peck tamarac bark; 1 lb spikenard root; ½ lb dandelion root; 2 oz hops; 2-3 gallons water; 3 lbs honey; 3 pints best brandy

Why it works: Honey and brandy work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 169 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Syrup Very Successful

Ingredients

Directions

Boil tamarac bark, spikenard root, dandelion root, and hops in 2-3 gallons of water to extract strength.
Strain the mixture and boil it down to 1 gallon.
When the mixture is blood warm, add honey and brandy.
Bottle the syrup and store it in a cool place.
Take a wine glass or a little less, 3-4 times daily before meals and at bedtime.

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.

Honey + brandytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together169 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Dandelion + honeytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Dandelion + brandytop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Hops + brandytop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).
Hops + honeytop 41% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1 recipe

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).