Name: Cough Tea
Ingredients: 1 quart strong tea of everlasting; 2 ounces liquorice root; 2 ounces raisins; juice of 1 lemon

Why it works: Tea and lemon work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 610 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Cough Tea

Ingredients

1 quart strong tea of everlasting
2 ounces liquorice root
2 ounces raisins
juice of 1 lemon

Directions

Make a strong tea using everlasting and strain it.
Add 2 ounces of liquorice root and 2 ounces of raisins to the tea.
Boil the mixture for half an hour.
Remove from heat and stir in the juice of 1 lemon.
Drink hot and avoid exposure for a few hours afterward.

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.

Tea + lemontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together610 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,742 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Tea + raisintop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together64 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).