Name: Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients: 2 cups brown sugar; ½ cup butter; ground cinnamon (to taste); baking powder; sweet milk; raisins or currants (optional)

Why it works: Cinnamon and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Cinnamon Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

Make a rich biscuit dough using baking powder and sweet milk.
Roll out the dough into a sheet ¼ inch thick.
Cut the dough into strips 2½ inches wide.

Fill and shape

Cream together the brown sugar and butter.
Mix in enough ground cinnamon for desired flavor.
Spread the cinnamon mixture on the strips of dough.
Cut the strips into sections.
Sprinkle the sections with raisins or currants if desired.
Roll the sections up.
Place the rolls in pans.

Bake and finish

Bake the rolls in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).
Brush the rolls with a mixture of sugar and butter.

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.

Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Baking powder: Releases gas in the dough so the rolls rise and stay light.
Butter: Adds fat that enriches the dough and keeps the filling moist and rich.
Brown sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps it caramelize and brown in the oven.
Sweet milk: Provides moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour to form the dough.
Ground cinnamon: Gives the filling its characteristic warm, aromatic flavor.