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French Rolls

A yeast roll made with butter, sugar, milk, and flour, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the sponge

  1. Soften the yeast in warm water.

  2. In a bowl, combine the softened yeast, beaten egg white, melted butter, sugar, warm milk or water, and salt.

  3. Add enough flour to make a sponge and let it sit overnight.

Shape and bake

  1. In the morning, knead the dough well and let it rise again until light.

  2. Roll out the dough to about ¾ inch thick and cut out shapes using a large cookie cutter or saucer.

  3. Butter the edges of each piece and roll each side towards the center.

  4. Place the rolls in buttered tins and let them rise until light.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°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. Butter + milktop 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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become light.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough structure and holds the risen gas.
Egg white
Adds protein for structure and helps the rolls set with a fine texture.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a richer flavor and tender texture.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and some browning in the oven.
Milk
Adds moisture and milk solids that soften the crumb and aid browning.

The step that matters

Letting the rolls rise until light. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas for a light texture. Rolls baked before they have risen fully stay dense and heavy.

“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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