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New Orleans Rolls

A yeast roll made with whey, flour, yeast, eggs, lard, sugar, and salt, baked until light.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Whey and sugar work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 58 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

New Orleans Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. Pour boiling whey over flour and let it cool.

  2. Add compressed yeast to make a stiff batter and set it to rise.

Mix and shape

  1. Once risen, add beaten eggs, melted lard, sugar, and salt.

  2. Knead the mixture and let it rise again.

  3. When light, shape into small rolls and place them 1 inch apart.

  4. Let the rolls stand for two hours before baking.

Bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until light and fluffy.

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. Whey + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together58 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Whey + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Eggs
Add richness and structure, helping the rolls hold their shape and crumb.
Lard
Adds fat, which tenderises the crumb and softens the texture of the rolls.
Compressed yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and turn light and airy.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Whey
Supplies liquid that hydrates the flour and helps build the dough.

The step that matters

Let the rolls stand for two hours before baking. This second rise lets the yeast produce enough gas for the rolls to expand and become light. Baking too early yields dense rolls.

“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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