Name: Best Cough Syrup
Ingredients: 1 ounce thoroughwort; 1 ounce slippery elm; 1 ounce stick licorice; 1 ounce best flax seed; 1 pint molasses; 1 quart water (or a little more); ½ pound loaf sugar

Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Best Cough Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Combine thoroughwort, slippery elm, stick licorice, and flax seed in a pot.
Simmer until the strength is fully extracted.
Strain the mixture carefully.
In a separate pot, mix the strained liquid with molasses, water, and loaf sugar.
Simmer well together.
Once cooled, bottle tightly.

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.

Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Licorice + sugartop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together76 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Licorice + molassestop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together22 recipes