Name: Scotch Short-cake
Ingredients: 2 cups of flour; 4 teaspoonfuls of cloves; 2 teaspoonfuls of cinnamon; 5 o'clock tea; 3 eggs

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,027 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

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

Also mentioned in the method: milk, butter

Directions

Better to mix without water.
Bake in a round cake % inch thick, pricked with fork and fluted edges.
Break in pieces, and serve at 5 o'clock tea.

By Fredonia, N.Y. Trinity parish guild, comp. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together14,027 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + teatop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together245 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Flour + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together16,954 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Clove + teatop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together164 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Flour + eggtop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together104,138 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg share little aroma chemistry, yet 104,138 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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the shortcake its structure.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping bind the dough and add tenderness.
Cloves: Add a warm, pungent aroma and spice flavour.
Cinnamon: Adds a sweet, warm aroma and spice flavour.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

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

Nutmegbetter flavor fit
Cardamombetter flavor fit
Gingerbetter flavor fit
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cinnamon, tea, egg. 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).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.