Name: Bannock Oe Indian Meal 'cakes
Ingredients: 1¼ pounds brown sugar; 1 pound butter; 6 eggs; 1 teaspoon cinnamon or ginger; 1¾ pounds white Indian meal (sifted); ¼ pound wheat flour

Why it works: Cinnamon and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 537 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Bannock Oe Indian Meal 'cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Cream together the brown sugar and butter.
Beat the eggs and mix them with the sugar and butter.
Add the cinnamon or ginger.
Stir in the white Indian meal and wheat flour.

Bake and cool

Bake in small cups and let cool in them.

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 + wheattop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together537 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 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

Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and add structure as they set.
White indian meal: Forms the main body of the bannock, giving it its grainy texture.
Wheat flour: Adds gluten-forming protein that gives the bake more structure and hold.

“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.