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French Rolls

A yeast dough roll made with butter, flour, eggs, yeast, milk, and salt, baked in a quick oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

French Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Sift a pound of flour into a pan and rub into it two ounces of butter.

  2. Mix in the whites only of three eggs, beaten to a stiff froth, and a tablespoonful of strong yeast.

  3. Add sufficient milk to make a stiff dough, and a salt-spoonful of salt.

Rise and shape

  1. Cover the dough and set it before the fire to rise.

  2. Let it rise until it is light, about an hour.

  3. Put the dough on a pasteboard, divide it into rolls or round cakes.

  4. Lay the rolls in a floured square pan.

Bake

  1. Bake them about ten minutes in a quick oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

635Calories
19 gProtein
18 gFat
96 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Eliza Leslie. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 main structure that holds the dough together as it rises and bakes.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a richer flavour.
Eggs
Whites beaten to a stiff froth add lightness and help the rolls rise.
Yeast (in the method)
Produces gas as it ferments, causing the dough to rise and become light.
Milk (in the method)
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and forms a stiff dough.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until light. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas for the dough to expand. Rising too briefly leaves dense rolls, while the dough must be light before shaping and 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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