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Brentford Rolls

A yeast roll made with flour, milk, butter, egg, sugar, and yeast, baked after rising.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Brentford Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Make a sponge with a pint of milk, and set to rise at night.

Make the dough

  1. Take three pints of flour, a teacupful of white sugar, one quarter pound butter, and one egg.

  2. Mix these in the flour, and then work in the sponge.

  3. Add one-half cake of compressed yeast, or one teacupful of liquid yeast.

  4. Knead the dough for twenty or thirty minutes.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape into rolls.

  2. Place rolls in pans, let them rise two or three hours.

  3. Bake in a quick oven.

  4. Use lard instead of butter if desired.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

945Calories
32 gProtein
26 gFat
145 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cakenot 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 Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough that holds the rolls together.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the dough.
Milk
Provides moisture and softness in the sponge.
Compressed yeast
Leavens the dough so the rolls rise and become light.

The step that matters

Knead the dough for twenty or thirty minutes. Kneading develops gluten, the stretchy protein network that traps gas from the yeast. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes up dense.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, egg, bread. 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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