Skip to main content
Bread

French Rolls

A yeast bread roll made with sweet milk, butter, lard, and eggs.

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

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 ↓

French 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 dough

  1. In a bowl, combine sweet milk, butter and lard mixture, yeast, and salt.

  2. Add enough flour to form a stiff dough.

  3. Cover and let the dough rise overnight.

Shape and bake

  1. In the morning, add the beaten eggs and knead thoroughly.

  2. Let the dough rise again.

  3. Shape the dough into balls the size of an egg, then roll into long rolls about three inches long.

  4. Place the rolls close together in well-buttered pans.

  5. Cover and let them rise again.

  6. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Sweet milk
Provides moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour to form the dough.
Butter and lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a rich texture.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, leavening the dough so the rolls rise.
Flour
Forms the gluten structure that traps gas and gives the rolls their body.
Eggs
Add protein for structure and richness, and help bind the dough.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs and kneading thoroughly in the morning. Kneading develops gluten so the dough can hold the gas from the yeast. Eggs are added with the kneading so they are evenly distributed and the dough keeps a smooth, elastic structure.

“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.

More french rolls recipes

Asparagus Stuffed 4 See all 185 →

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes