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Graham Rolls

A yeast roll made with graham and white flour, molasses, and butter or lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Graham Rolls

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Graham Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Combine milk, water, molasses, yeast, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Mix in equal parts of graham and white flour to form a slack dough.

  3. Knead the dough and let it rise until it doubles in size.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into round or oval rolls and place them on a baking sheet.

  2. Allow the rolls to proof until they are slightly puffy.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

  4. Brush the hot rolls with melted butter or lard.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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
Gives the rolls their nutty flavour and coarse, hearty texture.
White flour
Provides gluten structure so the dough can hold its shape and rise.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become airy.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and helps the crust brown.
Milk
Adds richness, softness, and browning from its milk sugars.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until it doubles. Yeast needs time to produce gas; under-rising leaves dense rolls, while over-proofing can cause collapse. Judging the rise by size helps achieve a light crumb.

“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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