Why it works: Butter and milk 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 Cake
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.
Make the dough
In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar, butter and lard, eggs, and lukewarm milk with dissolved yeast.
Knead the mixture until it no longer sticks to your fingers.
Shape and rise
Roll out the dough and spread with butter, sugar, and cinnamon.
Cut into strips and roll them up like buns.
Place the buns into pans and let them rise for 3 to 4 hours.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
- Active dry yeast
- Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become airy.
- Eggs
- Add richness, structure and tenderness to the dough.
- Butter and lard
- Add fat, which tenderizes the crumb and carries flavour.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning in the baked roll.
The step that matters
Kneading until the dough no longer sticks to your fingers. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from the yeast. Underkneaded dough stays sticky and may not rise well or hold its shape in the oven.
“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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