Name: Coffee Rings
Ingredients: Sweet Dough No. 1 or No. 2; 18 oz dough; egg wash; chopped almonds; granulated sugar (optional)

Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Coffee Rings

Ingredients

Directions

Make a medium firmness dough using Sweet Dough No. 1 or No. 2.
Scale off 18 oz pieces of dough and break each into three parts.
Roll each part into a ball and let rise for 15 minutes.
Roll the balls into long strips of equal length and braid them together.
Bring the two ends together to form a ring.
Place on slightly greased baking sheets and allow to rise until doubled in size.
Brush the ring with egg wash and sprinkle with chopped almonds and granulated sugar, if desired.
Alternatively, frost the ring after baking.

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.

Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,645 recipes

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