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Pennsylvania Rolls

A yeast roll made with flour, lard, sugar, potato sponge, and warm water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Pennsylvania Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the dough

  1. Sift about two quarts of flour into a bread bowl.

  2. Press the flour to the sides, leaving a space in the middle.

  3. Into the space put half a cup of sugar and half a cup (or six ounces) of lard.

  4. Rub the lard and sugar with the flour in the centre of the bowl.

  5. Pour in about half a pint of warm water or milk, and mix with the hand to a batter.

  6. Add about one quart of potato sponge that has risen overnight, or until very light.

  7. Keep adding flour from the sides until you have a soft dough.

Knead and rise

  1. Remove to the biscuit board and knead well for ten or fifteen minutes, or until smooth, being careful not to add too much flour.

  2. Set to rise, and when light mould, place in a buttered pan to rise.

  3. If you wish to have a nice brown crust all around your rolls, place them a little distance apart in the pan when moulding.

Bake

  1. When light, bake in a moderate oven from twenty minutes to half an hour, according to the size of the cakes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

780Calories
17 gProtein
14 gFat
145 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church. 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. See the original page.

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Bread + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together434 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,383 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Flour and bread barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,383 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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Potato sponge
A risen fermented starter that leavens the dough and makes it light.
Lard
Fat that tenderises the crumb and keeps the rolls soft.
Sugar
Feeds the rising yeast and adds sweetness and colour to the crust.

The step that matters

Kneading without adding too much flour. Kneading develops gluten so the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Extra flour stiffens the dough and leaves the rolls dense and dry.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, bread, sugar):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, bread, sugar. 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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