Why it works: Milk and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Vienna Rolls with Straight Dough
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
In a large bowl, combine the milk and water.
Dissolve the yeast in the mixture.
Add sugar, salt, and lard to the bowl.
Mix until a medium firm dough forms.
Knead the dough well and let it rise.
Work the dough over twice, then shape into rolls.
For crescents and twists, use a firmer dough.
For spitzweck, use a slacker dough.
Bake
Place rolls on baking pans and brush with egg wash.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.
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.
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Yeast
- Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light and airy.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and gentle browning in the oven.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a soft texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and milk solids that enrich the crumb and aid browning.
The step that matters
Knead the dough well and let it rise. Kneading develops gluten so the dough can trap the gas yeast produces. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes up dense.
“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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