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Vienna Rolls

Vienna rolls are yeast dough rolls made with flour, milk, water, salt, and yeast, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Vienna Rolls

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Vienna Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Mix 2 pounds of sifted flour with ½ pint of milk and ½ pint of water to form a thin batter.

  2. Add another ½ pint of milk mixed with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 cake of Royal Yeast.

  3. Leave some flour against the side of the bowl.

  4. Cover the bowl.

  5. Let the dough rise for 50 minutes.

  6. Mix in the remaining flour until the dough pulls away from the sides and bottom of the bowl.

  7. Let the dough stand for 2.5 hours.

Shape the rolls

  1. Divide the dough into 1-pound pieces.

  2. Divide each 1-pound piece into 12 smaller pieces.

  3. Flatten each piece into squares about ¾ inch thick.

  4. Fold the corners of each square to the center.

  5. Pinch the corners to seal.

  6. Turn the rolls over onto a cloth-covered board.

  7. Let the rolls rest for about 10 minutes.

  8. Transfer the rolls to a baking pan.

Bake

  1. Bake the rolls in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes.

  2. Halfway through baking, brush the rolls with milk.

  3. Return the rolls to the oven to finish baking.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 batter and dough structure that holds the rolls' shape and rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the dough, and browns the crust when brushed on.
Royal yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Water
Hydrates the flour so it forms a workable batter and dough.
Salt
Controls yeast activity and adds flavor to the dough.

The step that matters

Let the dough stand for 2.5 hours. Yeast needs time to ferment the dough fully; rising too briefly leaves rolls dense, while the dough should pull cleanly from the bowl before shaping.

“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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