Name: Cinnamon Sticks
Ingredients: 1 lb chopped and sifted almonds; ½ lb ornamenting sugar; 6 egg whites; dissolved gelatin; citron or cherries for topping

Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cinnamon Sticks

Ingredients

Directions

Froth the egg whites until stiff.
Mix the chopped almonds with the ornamenting sugar.
Combine the frothy egg whites with the almond mixture.
Wash the mixture with dissolved gelatin.
Top with citron or cherries.

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.

Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,778 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Almond + gelatintop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together197 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).