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Honey Water

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Coriander and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Honey Water

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine coriander seeds, cassia, cloves, gum benzoin, oil of rhodium, essence of lemon, essence of bergamot, and oil of lavender in a large container.

  2. Add rectified spirit of wine, rose water, and nutmeg water.

  3. Distill the mixture in a water bath until dry.

  4. For a common version, mix 2 drachms of tincture of ambergrease and 2 drachms of tincture of musk in 1 quart of rectified spirit of wine and ½ pint of water.

  5. Filter and store in small bottles.

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.

  1. Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Cassia + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Bergamot + lavendertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together82 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Coriander + cassiatop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Coriander + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,221 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Swap the cassia

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coriander, clove, lemon, bergamot, lavender, spirit, wine):

  1. Rosemaryfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Cassiathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coriander, clove, lemon, bergamot, lavender, spirit, wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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