Name: Cup Cakes
Ingredients: 1 lemon, grated rind; 2 tablespoons lemon juice; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 2 ounces melted chocolate; ½ cup chopped nuts; ¼ teaspoon almond extract; 1 cup grated coconut; 1 cup citron

Why it works: Vanilla and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cup Cakes

Ingredients

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a mixing bowl, combine the grated lemon rind, lemon juice, vanilla extract, melted chocolate, chopped nuts, almond extract, grated coconut, and citron.
Mix well until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.
Pour the batter into cupcake liners and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

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.

Vanilla + coconuttop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,294 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Almond + coconuttop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,093 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,961 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Nuts + almondtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together394 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vanilla, chocolate, nuts, almond, coconut):

Cherryfits better
Figfits better
Bananafits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vanilla, chocolate, nuts, almond, coconut. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.