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Dessert

Egg Rolls

A yeast cake made with flour, butter, milk, sugar, and eggs, rolled thin, buttered, and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Egg Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Into a pint of flour, sift two teaspoons baking powder and sift again.

  2. Rub in one tablespoon butter.

  3. Add one cup sweet milk, a pinch of salt, and one beaten egg to the flour.

  4. Make a soft dough, adding more flour if necessary.

  5. Roll the dough very thin.

  6. Use a large round cutter.

  7. Butter the top.

  8. Fold over.

  9. Brush again with butter.

  10. Bake in a hot oven.

Make the yeast cake

  1. Sift flour, sugar, and salt.

  2. Warm milk and melt the butter into it.

  3. Stir in flour.

  4. Add yeast after it has dissolved.

  5. Beat egg separately and add to the mixture.

  6. Pour the mixture into a buttered cake pan.

  7. Let stand until it has doubled in bulk.

  8. Brush with melted butter.

  9. Sprinkle with sugar.

  10. Bake in a moderate oven.

Serve

  1. Serve warm.

  2. Cut into squares.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

833Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
120 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
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 Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924). 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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 and the cake crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping it rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and browns the top.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds richness and structure.
Yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become airy.
Milk
Provides moisture and helps form a soft, cohesive dough.

The step that matters

Let stand until it has doubled in bulk. The yeast needs enough time to ferment and produce gas; underproofing leaves the cake dense, while the dough must be given room to expand before baking.

“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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