Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the milk.
Work the butter into the sifted flour, then add to the liquid and mix well.
Cover with a towel and let it rise until very light, about 2 to 3 hours.
Gently work down the dough and let it rise again for 30 to 45 minutes.
Shape and fill
Dust a board with flour and roll out the dough to 10 inches wide and ¼ inch thick.
Spread butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and currants over the dough.
Roll up the dough like a jelly roll and cut into 1½ inch pieces.
Bake and serve
Prepare pans by spreading butter and brown sugar about ¼ inch deep on the bottom.
Place the rolls upright in the pans, allow to rise, and bake as you would rolls.
When done, turn upside down on paper and let stand for a minute before removing from the pan.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light and airy.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten structure that holds the dough together and traps gas.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and softness to the dough.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and enriches the flavor.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture and caramelizes in the pan to form a sticky glaze.
The step that matters
Letting the dough rise fully before shaping. Yeast needs time to produce enough gas for a light, airy crumb. Rolling or baking dough that has not risen enough yields dense rolls.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, butter, flour, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, butter, flour, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
More cinnamon rolls recipes
You might also like
Red Currant Jelly65 recipes
Cinnamon Cake42 recipes
Currant Ice Cream32 recipes
Currant Sherbet9 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.