Name: Aniseed Bread
Ingredients: 1 ½ cups flour; 1 ½ cups chopped almonds; 1 cup sugar; 2 ounces anise seed; 9 eggs; a pinch of ammonia

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Aniseed Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make and shape the dough

In a bowl, mix flour, chopped almonds, sugar, anise seed, and ammonia.
Add eggs and combine until smooth.
Lay the mixture out in long strips on a baking sheet.

Glaze and bake

Glaze with egg white or chocolate glaze.
Bake until golden, then cut into small pieces.

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 + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Almond + anisetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together55 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Flour + anisetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together270 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 mixture and add structure and moisture to the dough.
Flour: Provides the main structure that holds the dough together as it bakes.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown as it bakes.
Chopped almonds: Add texture and body to the dough.
Anise seed: Provides the characteristic licorice-like aroma of the bread.
Baking ammonia: Acts as a leavening agent that helps the dough rise and lighten.