Name: Coffee Cake
Ingredients: 1½ pints bread dough; 1 egg; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon lard; ½ cup sugar; ½ cup milk; Butter for topping; Sugar for topping; Cinnamon for topping

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Coffee Cake

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.

Make the dough

Make a soft dough with the bread dough, egg, salt, lard, sugar, and milk.
Let the dough rise.
Work the dough into layers and let it rise again.

Top and bake

Melt butter and pour it over the top of the dough.
Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

Bread dough: Forms the base of the cake and carries the rise that gives it a light, layered texture.
Egg: Adds structure and richness to the soft dough.
Lard: Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and keeps it soft.
Milk: Adds moisture that keeps the dough soft and pliable.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the topping and helps it brown.