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Cinnamon Rolls

A sweet roll made from a sugar, butter, corn syrup fondant, dusted with cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cinnamon Rolls

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fondant

  1. In a pot, combine sugar, boiling water, butter, corn syrup, and a pinch of salt.

  2. Boil the mixture, then cool it and stir until it reaches a fondant-like consistency.

Shape and serve

  1. Shape the mixture into small rolls.

  2. Dust the rolls with powdered cinnamon before serving.

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.

  1. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Corn + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Syrup + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together990 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, 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

Sugar
Forms the sweet bulk of the fondant and sets into a soft, shapeable mass as it cools.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the texture and gives the fondant a smoother, richer mouthfeel.
Corn syrup
Interferes with sugar crystal formation, helping the fondant stay smooth rather than grainy.

The step that matters

Cooling and stirring the boiled mixture. Stirring only after the syrup has cooled encourages many tiny sugar crystals, which produce a smooth fondant. Stirring while hot can form large crystals and a grainy texture.

“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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