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Dessert

Philadelphia Cinnamon Rolls

A sweet roll made with lard, eggs, yeast, and cinnamon, baked into a soft, buttery loaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Philadelphia Cinnamon Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. Beat the lard, eggs, and sugar until light.

  2. Dissolve the yeast in warm water, then add the milk and about 4 cups of flour to make a sponge.

Shape and bake

  1. The next morning, add salt and enough flour to form a soft dough.

  2. When the dough is light, roll it out to about ½ inch thick.

  3. Spread the melted butter, water, sugar, and cinnamon mixture over the dough.

  4. Roll the dough like a jelly cake and cut into 2-inch pieces.

  5. Set the pieces on end in a greased pan and let rise in a warm place.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Lard
Adds richness and tenderness to the dough as a fat.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the dough hold its shape.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, and some sugar browning in the bake.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor to the cinnamon filling and helps keep the rolls tender.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until light. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce gas. Rising too little leaves the rolls dense, while the dough needs to be light before rolling so the rolls bake up soft and airy.

“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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