Name: Moravian Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup mashed potatoes; 1 cup potato water; 1 cup sugar; ½ cake yeast; flour (enough to make a thick batter); 3 eggs; ¾ cup lard and butter; a pinch of cinnamon; flour (enough to stiffen)

Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Moravian Cake

Ingredients

Directions

In the evening, mix mashed potatoes, potato water, sugar, yeast, and enough flour to make a thick batter.
Cover and keep in a warm place (about 80°F).
Beat the mixture occasionally during the evening.
At 10 or 11 o'clock, add sugar, eggs, lard and butter, cinnamon, and enough flour to form a non-sticky dough.
Knead the dough well.

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.

Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Potato + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,012 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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 potato

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

Sweet potatofits better
Arrowrootfits better
Chivefits better
Potatothe original

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