Name: Spanish Drop Cakes
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 1 teaspoon cinnamon extract; 1 cup sour cream; 2 cups flour; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 eggs, well beaten; brown sugar, for sprinkling; ground cinnamon, for sprinkling

Why it works: Cinnamon and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Spanish Drop Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Beat the sour cream and sugar together in a bowl.
Add the baking soda and cinnamon, then mix in the sifted flour.

Shape and bake

Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto greased baking sheets.
Sprinkle brown sugar and ground cinnamon on top of each cake.
Bake for about 10 minutes.

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.

Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Sour cream: Adds moisture and tang, keeping the cakes soft and tender.
Baking soda: Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to produce gas that lifts the cakes.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the cakes.
Sugar: Sweetens the batter and helps the cakes brown at the surface.