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French Rolls

A yeast dough roll baked at 400°F until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

French Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Combine warm water, lard, and sugar in a large bowl.

  2. Mix until the lard melts.

  3. Stir in a little flour.

  4. Add the yeast.

  5. Gradually mix in more flour with your hands until it forms a dough.

  6. Cover and let rise overnight.

  7. In the morning, add the salt.

  8. Knead for about 30 minutes.

  9. Let the dough rise again until light.

Shape and bake

  1. Take a small piece of dough, roll it out, and spread a little butter on it.

  2. Fold the dough over and place in baking tins.

  3. Let rise until light.

  4. Bake 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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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 dough its structure and chew.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and contributes to a soft texture.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Knead for about 30 minutes. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from the yeast. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes up dense and coarse.

“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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