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Pecan Butter Roll

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Pecan Butter Roll

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.

  1. Roll out the sweet yeast-raised dough into a sheet about ½ inch thick and 12 to 18 inches wide.

  2. Brush the dough with melted butter and sprinkle with a mixture of cinnamon sugar and ground pecan nuts.

  3. Roll the dough into a log and cut into 1-inch thick pieces.

  4. Prepare the pans by brushing the bottom and sides with softened butter and filling with sifted light brown sugar.

  5. Place the pieces in the pans, with one in the center and the others around it, leaving space between them.

  6. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

  7. Turn the rolls out onto a plate while hot, so the caramel forms on top.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cinnamon + nutstop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together487 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + nutstop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

Cinnamon and sugar 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 nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Pecansfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

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

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