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Bread

Viney's Flannel Rolls

A yeast bread roll made with flour, butter, sugar, milk, and egg whites, baked until golden.

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

Viney's Flannel Rolls

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 batter

  1. In the evening, mix the milk, sugar, and nearly half of the flour to make a batter.

  2. In the morning, soften and cream the butter, then stir it into the batter along with the beaten egg whites.

  3. Add the remaining flour and let the mixture rise until light.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into small oval rolls, using as little flour as possible.

  2. Place the rolls in French roll or gem pans, cover, and let them rise again until light.

  3. Prick the rolls and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) 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. 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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the rolls their structure and crumb.
Yeast
Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light and airy.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and enriches the flavour.
Eggs whites
Add protein that helps structure and lift the dough as it rises.
Milk
Provides moisture that hydrates the flour and forms the dough.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and gentle browning.

The step that matters

Use as little flour as possible when shaping. Extra flour added during shaping is worked into the dough and makes it stiffer and drier, which limits the rise and lightness of the 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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