Name: Cinnamon Cakes
Ingredients: 6 eggs; 3 tablespoons rose water; 1 pound sifted sugar; 2 teaspoons pounded cinnamon; Flour (enough to make a good paste)

Why it works: Cinnamon and flour 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 ↓

Cinnamon Cakes

Ingredients

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.

Prepare the dough

Crack the eggs into a bowl, add the rose water, and whisk them together well.
Add the sifted sugar and pounded cinnamon, then mix in enough flour to form a good paste.
Roll out the dough and cut it into desired shapes.

Bake and store

Bake the shapes on white paper in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until done.
Remove from the oven and store in a dry place for later use.

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 + flourtop 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).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Rose + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together892 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the dough and add moisture and structure to the paste.
Sifted sugar: Adds sweetness and helps give the baked cakes a tender texture.
Pounded cinnamon: Provides the warm, aromatic flavour that defines the cakes.
Flour: Forms the paste and gives the shapes their body when baked.