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Dessert

Molasses Buns

Molasses buns are sweet, spiced bread rolls made with molasses, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Molasses Buns

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a steady oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the egg, egg yolks, brown sugar, melted butter, sour milk, and molasses.

  3. Stir in the baking soda, flour, cinnamon, and cloves until well combined.

  4. Pour the batter into square tins.

Bake and frost

  1. Bake until golden brown.

  2. Whip the egg whites and gradually add brown sugar to make frosting.

  3. Frost the buns and cut them into squares.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, sweet flavor.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the buns rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lightens the crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the buns together as they set.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the buns and helps keep them moist and tender.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. Baking too briefly leaves the centre wet and underset, while overbaking dries the crumb. Golden brown colour signals browning from sugars and proteins, which adds flavour. Watch colour and doneness rather than only the clock.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, milk, molasses, flour, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk, molasses, flour, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

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