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Dessert

Cinnamon Buns

A sweet roll made from a soft dough of bread sponge, egg, sugar, lard, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 Buns

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.

Make the dough

  1. Combine the bread sponge, egg, sugar, lard, baking soda dissolved in water, and coarse sea salt in a bowl.

  2. Mix thoroughly by hand.

  3. Add flour gradually until the dough is soft.

  4. Knead in the bowl until well mixed.

  5. Set the dough aside to rise until very light.

Shape and fill

  1. Roll out the dough to about ½ inch thick.

  2. Spread the dough with a mixture of sugar and butter.

  3. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon.

  4. Roll the dough up like a jelly roll.

  5. Cut the roll into 1-inch pieces.

  6. Place the buns close together in a baking tin.

  7. Spread the buns with more butter and sugar.

  8. Sprinkle the buns with cinnamon.

Bake

  1. Let the buns rise until very light.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.

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

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

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, 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

Bread sponge
Provides fermentation and an airy, light crumb as the dough rises.
Egg
Adds structure and richness to the soft dough.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a soft texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidity in the dough to help it rise and brown.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the sugar and cinnamon caramelise on the surface.

The step that matters

Let the buns rise until very light. Under-proofed buns stay dense and heavy, while the rise before baking creates the light, open crumb. Proofing is done when the dough looks puffy and light, so the buns hold their shape in the oven.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonthe original
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, sugar, flour, butter. 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.

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