Name: Buns, Plum
Ingredients: 2 pounds plain bun paste; ½ pound currants; ¼ pound candied orange peel, cut into small pieces; ½ grated nutmeg; ½ ounce mixed spice

Why it works: Orange and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,746 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Buns, Plum

Ingredients

2 pounds plain bun paste
½ pound currants
¼ pound candied orange peel, cut into small pieces
½ grated nutmeg
½ ounce mixed spice

Directions

Mix the dough

In a large bowl, combine the bun paste, currants, candied orange peel, grated nutmeg, and mixed spice.

Shape and bake

Form the mixture into buns.
Use a knife to dent the edges of each bun.
Proceed with baking as desired.

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.

Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,746 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Currant + orangetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,034 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Currant + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,983 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).