Name: Bolls
Ingredients: 1 quart light bread-dough; 1 tablespoon sugar; Butter or lard (size of an egg)

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Bolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

1 quart light bread-dough
1 tablespoon sugar
Butter or lard (size of an egg)

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.

Scald the milk and let it cool before mixing with the yeast.
Knead the dough lightly in the pan after flouring your hands.
Take a piece of dough the size of a small egg and shape it nicely.
Place the shaped dough in a well-greased deep pan.
Leave space for the rolls to rise to twice their original height.
Set the rolls in a warm place to rise until light.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes.
Remove immediately when done to prevent the crust from hardening.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Bread + sugartop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,638 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).