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Pairing

Sugar + Cinnamon

A proven pairing. Cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes, and they share 47 flavor molecules: the top 10% of all ingredient pairs.

Smell alikelow
Cooked together30,779 recipes
Ranktop 10% of pairs
Try them in the pairing tool Sugar Cinnamon
18sugar only 47shared 277cinnamon only Sugar · 65 Cinnamon · 324
Circle size = number of flavor molecules on record. Overlap = molecules they share.

Do sugar and cinnamon go together?

Yes. 30,779 recipes in our collection combine them, and they share 47 flavor molecules. That places them in the top 10% of every ingredient pair we score.

Why they work

More than half of sugar's flavor molecules (47 of 65) also occur in cinnamon. Among the shared key aromas are guaiacol (smoky, sweet) and 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent). Most of what they share is background chemistry many foods carry, so the overlap does little for the smell.

What each one brings

sugar

The tartness. Sour notes make up 24% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 15% for cinnamon. It carries 18 molecules cinnamon doesn't have.

cinnamon

The herbal side. Herbal notes make up 12% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 0% for sugar. It carries 277 molecules sugar doesn't have.

Add a third ingredient

  • Nutmeg: the best fit for both, top 20% of pairs with sugar, top 1% with cinnamon.
  • Vanilla: top 8% of pairs with sugar, top 1% with cinnamon.
  • Star anise: top 21% of pairs with sugar, top 1% with cinnamon.
  • Cardamom: top 19% of pairs with sugar, top 1% with cinnamon.

Ranked by the average of its two pairing scores. Only foods used in at least 100 recipes are suggested.

Recipes with sugar and cinnamon

Mostly desserts: 1,136 of the 1,580 recipes with a course label are desserts (from a sample of 3,000 recipes that use both).

Cinnamon Cake 2 versionsApple Blintzes with Caramel Sauce and CinnamonApple Cheddar Strudel with Pecans and CinnamonApple Cinnamon Raisin LatkesApple Streusel Cobbler with Nuts and Oats and CinnamonApple-Cinnamon Wontons à la Mode

See recipes with both →

Can you swap one for the other?

Only partly. Most of sugar's flavor molecules (47 of 65) are also found in cinnamon, but cinnamon has 277 that sugar lacks. Sugar gives you part of cinnamon's character without most of its herbal side. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

All 47 shared molecules

See every shared molecule grouped by chemical class, with key aromas marked, plus the 18 only in sugar and the 277 only in cinnamon.

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Sugar and cinnamon questions

Do sugar and cinnamon go together?

A proven pairing. Cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes, and they share 47 flavor molecules: the top 10% of all ingredient pairs.

Why do sugar and cinnamon taste good together?

More than half of sugar's flavor molecules (47 of 65) also occur in cinnamon. Among the shared key aromas are guaiacol (smoky, sweet) and 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent). Most of what they share is background chemistry many foods carry, so the overlap does little for the smell.

What goes with sugar and cinnamon?

Nutmeg is the best third ingredient: top 20% of pairs with sugar and top 1% with cinnamon. Vanilla and star anise also fit both.

What can you make with sugar and cinnamon?

Mostly desserts: 1,136 of the 1,580 recipes with a course label are desserts (from a sample of 3,000 recipes that use both). Common dishes include Cinnamon Cake, Apple Blintzes with Caramel Sauce and Cinnamon, Apple Cheddar Strudel with Pecans and Cinnamon, Apple Cinnamon Raisin Latkes.

Can I use cinnamon instead of sugar?

Only partly. Most of sugar's flavor molecules (47 of 65) are also found in cinnamon, but cinnamon has 277 that sugar lacks. Sugar gives you part of cinnamon's character without most of its herbal side. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

Compare other ingredients

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2

Two ingredients gives the full side-by-side breakdown; add a third to see a similarity matrix across all of them (up to 6).

Ranks compare this pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. Molecule counts are what the studies and databases we aggregate have reported for each ingredient: a measure of coverage, not a full census. How we score pairs

Cite this analysis
Plain text
Compound Kitchen (2026). Compound similarity analysis: Sugar vs Cinnamon. https://compkitchen.com/compare/sugar-vs-cinnamon. Accessed 2026-11-03.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compare_compound_similarity_analysis_sugar_vs_cinnamon_2026,
  title  = {Compound similarity analysis: Sugar vs Cinnamon},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compare/sugar-vs-cinnamon},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-03}
}

Methodology DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19719459 · CC BY 4.0 · Citations are a request, not a requirement.