Abstract To provide a consistent database for all important classes of hydrocarbons considered as components of surrogate mixtures, laminar burning velocities of n-decane, p-xylene and methylcyclohexane blended with ethanol were determined using the heat flux method at atmospheric pressure and initial temperatures of 318–400 K. The results obtained at Samara University and Lund University are within overlapping experimental uncertainties. Moreover, data consistency for MCH + ethanol blends was assessed with the help of analysis of the temperature dependence of the laminar burning velocity. Present experiments were modelled using the PoliMi detailed kinetic mechanism. Its predictions were found in a good agreement with the measurements performed with n-decane, while burning velocities of methylcyclohexane and p-xylene were over- and underpredicted, respectively. In all cases, the burning velocity of ethanol is higher than that of the hydrocarbons studied, while the burning velocity of the blends is in-between the values for the neat components.