Name: Parkin
Ingredients: ½ ounce ground ginger; ½ pound sugar; 4 pounds fine oatmeal; 1 pound butter; 2 ounces candied lemon, finely chopped; treacle (to warm)

Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Parkin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Mix the ginger and sugar with the oatmeal.
Rub the butter into the mixture until well combined.
Add the chopped candied lemon and mix thoroughly.

Make and bake

Warm the treacle in a jar.
Incorporate the warm treacle into the mixture.
Press the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake until firm.

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.

Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ginger and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Fine oatmeal: Forms the bulk of the cake, giving it its structure and body.
Butter: Rubbed into the oatmeal to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
Treacle: Adds sweetness, moisture and a dark colour, and helps bind the mixture together.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.