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French Rolls

French rolls are small yeast rolls made with flour, butter, egg whites, yeast, milk, and salt.

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 ↓

French Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA very quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Sift the flour into a bowl.

  2. Rub the butter into the flour until well combined.

  3. Beat the egg whites until frothy and mix them in.

  4. Add the yeast and enough milk to form a stiff dough.

  5. Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place for about 1 hour.

Shape and bake

  1. Cut the risen dough into small rolls and place them on a buttered baking tin.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 10 minutes 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. 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 + 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).

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 main structure that holds the dough together and lets it rise.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives the rolls a tender texture.
Egg whites
Add protein that strengthens the dough and helps it hold air for a lighter crumb.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become airy.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and forms the dough.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise in a warm place. Yeast needs warmth and time to ferment and produce gas. If the dough rises too little, the rolls stay dense; the rise is what makes them light.

“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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