Why it works: Sugar and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Bismarck Buns
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Shape and fill
Mould the bun dough into round balls and let them rise.
Lightly pull apart the center of each ball and fill with fruit jam.
Pinch the sides over the jam to enclose it and place on baking pans, pinched side down.
Arrange the buns close enough to touch while baking.
Bake and finish
Brush the tops with melted butter and let them rise again.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
While hot, brush again with butter and dust with sugar and cinnamon.
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.
-
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,784 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
-
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
What each ingredient does
- Bun dough
- Provides the soft, airy structure that rises and holds the jam filling.
- Fruit jam
- Adds sweetness and moisture to the filling, which bakes into the centre of each bun.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the tops brown as they bake.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the buns and forms a light crust when dusted on hot buns.
The step that matters
Pinching the sides over the jam. If the dough is not sealed well around the jam, the filling can leak out during baking and leave the buns dry and empty inside.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
You might also like
Cinnamon Rolls71 recipes
Cinnamon Cake42 recipes
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.