Name: Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients: 1 quart light bread dough; 1 cup sugar; 1 tablespoon lard; butter (for spreading); cinnamon (for sprinkling)

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

Mix the bread dough with sugar and lard.
Roll the mixture to ½ inch thick.

Fill and shape

Spread with butter, sugar, and cinnamon.
Roll up like a jelly roll and cut into 1 inch wide slices.

Rise and bake

Let the slices rise, then bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,784 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Bread + cinnamontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,705 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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

Bread dough: Forms the soft, bready structure that holds the rolls together.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown in the oven.
Lard: Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and keeps it moist.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture to the filling and a rich flavor.
Cinnamon: Adds warm, sweet aroma and flavor to the filling.

“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.