Name: Moravian Orange Bread
Ingredients: 1 ½ cups molasses; ½ cup butter; ½ cup sugar; 1 teacup jelly; 1 teaspoon mace; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 ½ tablespoons orange peel; Flour (for stiffening the dough)

Why it works: Cinnamon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,437 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Moravian Orange Bread

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine molasses, butter, sugar, jelly, mace, cinnamon, and orange peel.
Gradually add flour until the mixture is stiff.
Refrigerate the dough overnight.
Roll out the dough very thin.
Cut into small cakes.

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.

Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,437 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, sugar, cinnamon, orange, flour):

Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits better
Allspicefits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, sugar, cinnamon, orange, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.