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The Swedish Semla or Lent Buns

In Sweden we eat Semlor on Fat Tuesday which usually falls in February but this year it is on March 8th.  You ask what is Fat Tuesday? Fat Tuesday is the last day before Lent, also called Shrove Tuesday.  Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday and it is all related to the practice…

By delishhh · From Open Recipes · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,416 recipes mention both. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

The recipe

16-20 buns

Ingredients

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

  • Filling
  • Almond paste

Directions

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

By delishhh. 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. Milk + wheattop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,416 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Cardamom + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together457 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

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

  4. Flour + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Wheat + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the cardamom

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

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Nutmegabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Cardamomthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, sugar, wheat, flour, egg, almond. 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).