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Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross bun adapted from The Pioneer Woman.

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Why it works: Cinnamon and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,390 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 12
Prep2 hr
Cook20 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cinnamon + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Flour + raisintop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,071 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12,647 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together16,954 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,777 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, canola oil, sugar, flour, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Blueberryabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Pumpkinabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, canola oil, sugar, flour, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).