Name: Hot Cross Buns
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon cinnamon; 1 cup mixed fruit (raisins and currants, optional)

Why it works: Cinnamon and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients

1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup mixed fruit (raisins and currants, optional)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

In a bowl, combine the plain bun mixture with cinnamon and mixed fruit if desired.
Roll the dough to ¾ inch thick and cut with a 3-inch cutter.
Make cuts at right angles on top of each bun.
Let the buns rise until doubled in size.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.
Glaze the buns during baking.

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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Cinnamon + curranttop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,099 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).