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Rolls with Compressed Yeast

A yeast roll made with compressed yeast, milk, butter, water, sugar, salt, flour, lard, and egg, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Rolls with Compressed Yeast

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Heat milk and butter until melted; let cool to lukewarm.

  2. Dissolve yeast in water and add to milk mixture.

  3. Stir in sugar and salt.

  4. Sift flour into a large bowl, make a well, and pour in milk mixture.

  5. Dust flour over mixture and let rise until light.

  6. Knead dough, return to bowl, rub surface with lard, let rise again.

Shape and bake

  1. Lightly flour a breadboard and turn dough onto it.

  2. Roll dough to 1 inch thick and cut with biscuit cutter.

  3. Butter one half of each round, fold the other half over, and place in pan with space between each.

  4. Brush tops with beaten egg and milk mixture.

  5. Bake in preheated oven at 400°F until golden.

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. Milk + buttertop 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).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 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).

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 gluten network that traps gas and gives the rolls their structure.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the crumb and aiding browning.
Butter
Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and adds flavor.
Egg
Brushed on top, it helps the crust brown and become glossy.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning in the crust.

The step that matters

Let the milk mixture cool to lukewarm before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by high heat, so milk that is too hot can stop fermentation and the dough will not rise properly. Lukewarm liquid 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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