Why it works: Biscuit and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 312 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓
Cinnamon Rolls
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.
Prepare a light biscuit dough using your preferred method.
Roll the dough out thinly.
Spread melted butter over the dough.
Sprinkle powdered sugar and ground cinnamon on top.
Cut the dough into shapes and roll them up.
If using yeast, let the rolls rise for a while.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.
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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Biscuit + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together312 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,784 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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Biscuit + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,009 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Biscuit + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,874 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (biscuit, butter, sugar):
- Cinnamonthe original
- Capersfits about as well
- Nutmegfits less well
- Tarragonfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, butter, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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