Why it works: Flour and caraway match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,435 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Vienna Rolls
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the dough
Combine warm milk, sugar, and yeast in a bowl and let the mixture sit until frothy.
Add flour, salt, and cold butter to the mixture and mix until a dough forms.
Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth, about 5 minutes.
Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover the bowl, and let the dough rise in a cool place until doubled in size.
Shape and bake
Divide the dough into pieces and shape the pieces into rolls or twists.
Place the rolls on a baking sheet and sprinkle the rolls with poppy or caraway seeds.
Let the rolls rise for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Bake the rolls for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
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.
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Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,435 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + poppy seedtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together258 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the crumb and aiding browning.
- Active dry yeast
- Ferments sugars to produce carbon dioxide, which makes the dough rise.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning.
- Cold butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and enriches the flavor.
The step that matters
Letting the dough rise until doubled. The yeast needs time and a suitable temperature to produce enough gas for a light texture. Rolls shaped or baked before the dough has risen fully will be dense.
Swap the poppy seed
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, sugar, butter, egg, caraway):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Turmericfits about as well
- Poppy seedthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, sugar, butter, egg, caraway. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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