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Excellent Rolls

A yeast-based roll dough made with flour, butter, lard, milk, yeast, salt, and egg, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Excellent Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Scald the milk over boiling water.

  2. Pour the scalded milk over the beaten egg.

  3. Stir in the butter and lard.

  4. When cooled to blood heat, mix in 1 pound of flour and the yeast.

  5. Place the mixture in a warm place to rise.

  6. When light, add the remaining ½ pound of flour.

  7. Let it rise again.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough.

  2. Cut into biscuits.

  3. Place the biscuits in buttered pans.

  4. Cover the biscuits.

  5. Let them rise until light.

  6. Prick the tops.

  7. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the rolls their structure.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and turn light.
Egg
Adds protein for structure and richness, and helps bind the dough.
Milk
Adds moisture and milk sugars that help the crust brown during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the crumb.
Lard
Adds fat that keeps the crumb soft and tender.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until light. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas for a light crumb. Rising too short leaves rolls dense, while over-proofing can make them collapse in the oven.

“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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