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Buttermilk Rolls

A yeasted roll made with buttermilk, sugar, and shortening, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Buttermilk Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the yeast

  1. Heat ½ cup buttermilk to lukewarm.

  2. Sprinkle yeast over warm buttermilk and let sit until foamy.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine sugar, salt, flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

  2. Add the yeast mixture and shortening to the dry ingredients.

  3. Mix until a soft dough forms.

  4. Knead on a floured surface until smooth, then let rise until doubled in size.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape into rolls and place on a baking sheet.

  2. Let rise again, then bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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 once its proteins develop through kneading.
Yeast
Ferments sugars to produce gas that makes the rolls rise and become airy.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and mild acidity, which tenderizes the crumb and helps the yeast start.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the texture and softens the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the buttermilk's acidity to produce gas that lightens the rolls.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and promotes browning on the crust.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until doubled. Under-proofed dough bakes up dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse or lose structure. Yeast gas needs time to build the airy crumb.

“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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