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Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon rolls are sweet rolls made with dough, butter, sugar, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Cinnamon Rolls

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Prepare light dough as for bread.

  2. Mix in shortening and a little sugar.

Shape and rise

  1. Roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thickness.

  2. Spread with butter, then sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

  3. Roll up the dough and cut it like a jelly cake.

  4. Place in pans like biscuits and set aside to rise.

Bake

  1. Once risen, place a lump of butter, sugar, and cinnamon on each roll.

  2. Bake until golden.

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.

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.

  1. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  4. Bread + cinnamontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,705 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Light dough
Provides the soft, airy bread structure that holds the spiral and rises in the pan.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and keeps the crumb soft.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the rolls brown in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and melts into the filling for flavour.
Cinnamon
Contributes the warm, aromatic flavour of the filling.

The step that matters

Rolling and cutting the spiral. If the dough is rolled unevenly or too thick, the rolls bake unevenly and the filling can leak out. A tight, even roll keeps the layers distinct and the rolls shapely.

“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.

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