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Breakfast Rolls

A yeast dough roll made with butter, milk, flour, yeast, salt, and baking powder, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Breakfast 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 ↓

Breakfast Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Warm the butter in the milk.

  2. Add the yeast and salt, then stir this mixture into the flour.

  3. Let the dough rise for 1 hour.

Shape and bake

  1. Knead the dough well and divide it into 4-ounce pieces.

  2. Shape them into ovals and make a lengthwise cut with a knife.

  3. Bake immediately in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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. 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).

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
Provides the protein and starch that form the gluten network and structure of the rolls.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, which makes the dough rise and become airy.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a richer flavor.
Milk
Adds moisture and milk sugars that soften the crumb and help the crust brown.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, giving an extra lift to the rolls.

The step that matters

Knead the dough well. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas yeast produces. Under-kneaded dough rises unevenly and bakes up dense and crumbly.

“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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