Name: Small Sugar Cakes of Various Kinds
Ingredients: ½ pound butter; 1 pound flour; ¾ pound dry sifted sugar; grated rind of 2 small lemons (or juice of 1 for lemon cakes); 2 teaspoons cinnamon (or 1 to 2 ounces caraway seeds or powdered ginger); ¾ pound dry cleaned currants; a pinch of salt; 2 to 4 eggs; small quantity of milk

Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Small Sugar Cakes of Various Kinds

Ingredients

½ pound butter
1 pound flour
¾ pound dry sifted sugar
grated rind of 2 small lemons (or juice of 1 for lemon cakes)
2 teaspoons cinnamon (or 1 to 2 ounces caraway seeds or powdered ginger)
¾ pound dry cleaned currants
a pinch of salt
2 to 4 eggs
small quantity of milk

Directions

In a bowl, mix ½ pound of butter with 1 pound of flour until very small.
Add ¾ pound of dry sifted sugar and the grated rinds of 2 lemons or your choice of flavoring.
Mix in a pinch of salt.
Gradually moisten with 2 to 4 slightly whisked eggs until a firm paste forms.
Roll out the dough and stamp out shapes with a cake tin, or drop onto baking sheets.
Space the cakes 2 inches apart on the baking sheets.
For cheaper cakes, use 5 ounces of butter, 6 ounces of sugar, 2 large eggs, and a small amount of milk.

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.

Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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).
Cinnamon + milktop 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).

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

Swap the currant

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Currantthe original

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