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Indian Breakfast Rolls

A sweet, molasses-flavored roll made with flour, cornmeal, and baking soda, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Indian Breakfast 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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and grease a cast-iron compartment pan.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix molasses, sour milk, flour, cornmeal, and salt.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in cold water and add to the mixture, stirring well.

  3. Spoon 1 tablespoon of dough into each compartment of the pan, then distribute the remaining dough evenly.

Bake

  1. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown.

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 + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a deep flavor to the rolls.
Sour milk
Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda.
Flour
Provides structure that holds the rolls together as they bake.
Cornmeal
Gives the rolls a coarser, slightly crumbly texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lifts the rolls.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda before adding it. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and stirred evenly through the batter so it reacts with the acid in the sour milk and rises uniformly. Clumps can leave bitter spots and uneven rising.

“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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