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Cinnamon Rolls

A yeasted sweet roll with butter, sugar, cinnamon, and optional currants, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cinnamon Rolls

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 ↓

Cinnamon Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Dissolve the yeast in warm milk and lukewarm water to set a sponge.

  2. Add butter, sugar, eggs, and baking soda to the sponge and mix to form a dough.

  3. Let the dough rise until doubled in size.

Shape the rolls

  1. Roll out the dough and spread it with butter.

  2. Sprinkle the dough with soft sugar and cinnamon.

  3. Add currants if desired.

  4. Roll the dough tightly and cut into 1½ inch pieces.

  5. Place the rolls on their ends.

  6. Let the rolls rise again.

Bake

  1. Bake the rolls in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cinnamon + curranttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, which makes the dough rise and become light.
Eggs
Add richness and help set the structure of the dough.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the rolls brown in the oven.
Milk
Provides moisture and softness to the dough.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until doubled. The yeast needs time to ferment and trap gas in the dough. If the dough is underproofed, the rolls will be dense and heavy, and rising time also depends on the room's warmth.

Swap the currant

The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, sugar, egg, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sugar, egg, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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