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Graham Rolls

A yeast-leavened roll made with Graham and white flour, molasses, butter, and salt, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Graham Rolls

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Graham Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make and shape the dough

  1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly with a spoon.

  2. Leave the mixture in a warm place to rise until light.

  3. Drop the risen dough into buttered roll pans.

Bake

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Graham flour
Adds a coarser texture and a nutty, wholesome flavor from its bran and germ.
White flour
Its gluten forms the elastic network that holds the rolls together and lets them rise.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas as it ferments, which makes the dough rise and become light.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and deeper flavor, and helps the crust brown.
Drippings or butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and promotes browning on the outside.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until light. The yeast needs time in a warm place to produce enough gas to lighten the dough. Rising too little leaves dense rolls, and rising too long can weaken the gluten so the rolls collapse or bake up flat.

“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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