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White Mountain Rolls

A yeast roll made with flour, sugar, butter, milk, egg whites, and baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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White Mountain Rolls

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 ↓

White Mountain 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.

Make the dough

  1. Melt the butter and sugar in the boiling milk until combined.

  2. Allow the milk mixture to cool to blood warm.

  3. Mix in part of the flour.

  4. Add the beaten egg whites.

  5. Knead the dough until stiff.

  6. Let the dough rise in a warm place overnight.

Shape and bake

  1. Knead the dough into rolls.

  2. Let the rolls rise until light.

  3. Brush the tops of the rolls with beaten egg white.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 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).

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

All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the rolls their structure.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they add air and lightness to the dough and a glossy top when brushed on.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a tender texture.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds mild sweetness and browning in the oven.
Milk
Adds moisture and proteins that enrich the dough and help browning.

The step that matters

Let the milk mixture cool to blood warm. If the liquid is still hot, it can kill the yeast and the dough will not rise. Blood warm, around body temperature, keeps the yeast active.

“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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