Name: German Coffee Cakes
Ingredients: 4 eggs; 1 cup butter, melted; 1 cup milk, warmed; 2 cups yeast; ½ pound sugar; Flour, as needed; Coarsely chopped almonds, for topping; Sugar, for topping; Cinnamon, for topping

Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

German Coffee Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Beat the eggs well, then add the sugar and some flour.
Mix in the melted butter and warmed milk.
Add more flour and lastly the yeast to form a stiff batter.
Set the batter to rise in a large vessel until it reaches the top.
Work in enough flour to make a stiff dough.
Place the dough into large cake pans and let it rise again.
When ready, spread each cake thickly with beaten egg.
Top with coarsely chopped almonds, sugar, and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

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.

Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,514 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).