Skip to main content
Bread

Good Dinner Rolls

A soft bread roll made with flour, butter, yeast, milk, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Good Dinner Rolls

24 rolls
Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Stir the yeast with plenty of cold water at least one day before using.

  2. In a large bowl, combine flour, butter, sugar, and salt. Add ½ pint of milk and the yeast mixture, mixing until smooth.

  3. Let the dough rise for about 1 hour.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into 24 small rolls and place them on floured baking sheets, spaced 1-2 inches apart.

  2. Let the rolls prove for 15-20 minutes.

  3. Mix the egg with a little milk and wash the tops of the rolls.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10-12 minutes.

  5. Turn the rolls upside down on a dish to cool after baking.

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 + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Provides the gluten network that gives the rolls their structure.
German yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, soft dough.
Egg
Enriches the dough and the wash browns the tops of the rolls.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and softens the texture.

The step that matters

Let the yeast ferment before mixing. The yeast must be stirred into cold water well ahead of time so it is active and produces enough gas to raise the dough. Weak or dead yeast leaves dense rolls.

“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.

More dinner rolls recipes

Fried 8 See all 20 →

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes