Name: Long Currant Buns
Ingredients: cinnamon cake dough; cinnamon sugar; currants; vanilla icing

Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Long Currant Buns

Ingredients

cinnamon cake dough
cinnamon sugar
currants
vanilla icing

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

Roll out the cinnamon cake dough into square pieces ½ inch thick and 10 inches wide.
Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and currants.
Fold the dough over from both sides and cut into small strips.
Set the cut side up and place them close together.

Bake and finish

Allow the buns to rise.
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).
Frost thickly with vanilla icing.

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 + vanillatop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,287 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon + curranttop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,099 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Currant + vanillatop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together514 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Cinnamon cake dough: Forms the soft, enriched structure that sets into the bun when baked.
Cinnamon sugar: Adds sweetness and warm cinnamon aroma, and caramelises slightly in the oven.
Currants: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweet-tart fruit pockets throughout the bun.
Vanilla icing: Adds sweetness and a smooth, rich finish over the baked buns.