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Cinnamon Toast

Cinnamon toast is buttered bread topped with cinnamon and powdered sugar, broiled until caramelized.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cinnamon Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the toast

  1. Cut the fresh white bread into ½ inch thick slices.

  2. Toast one side quickly until golden brown.

  3. Spread butter thickly on the un-toasted side.

Add the topping

  1. Mix cinnamon and powdered sugar.

  2. Spread the mixture generously on the buttered side.

  3. Dot with small pieces of butter.

Broil and serve

  1. Place in the oven with the broiler on full, on the lower rack.

  2. Watch closely until the mixture melts and browns.

  3. Remove from the oven.

  4. Cut the toast into strips or halves.

  5. Serve with tea.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  4. Bread + cinnamontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,705 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Fresh white bread
Provides the base that becomes crisp on one side and soft underneath.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture so the topping melts and browns evenly under the broiler.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma and flavour to the sweet topping.
Powdered sugar
Melts and caramelises under the broiler, giving sweetness and a browned crust.

The step that matters

Watch closely under the broiler. Sugar goes from melted to burnt within seconds under intense top heat. Sugar browns through caramelisation, so the topping needs close attention to brown without scorching the cinnamon and bread.

“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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