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Winter Rolls

A yeast-leavened dough made with flour, buttermilk, lard, water, yeast, and salt, baked into rolls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Winter Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the sponge

  1. In a large crock or jar, scald the buttermilk and add the lard.

  2. Pour the mixture over the flour and beat well.

  3. Stir in the cold water and add the potato yeast or brewer's yeast; mix thoroughly.

  4. Cover and let rise in a warm place overnight.

Make the dough

  1. In the morning, add salt and enough flour to form a moderately stiff dough.

  2. Let the dough rise again in a warm place.

  3. Knead the dough down and place it in a large stone crock or bowl, covered tightly to prevent drying.

Bake and store

  1. When needed, turn out the dough on a floured surface, cut off a piece, and roll it out to the thickness of ordinary soda biscuits.

  2. Cut and bake immediately in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).

  3. Store the remaining dough as before; it will keep for a week in winter.

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. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Buttermilk + potatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together153 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 of the dough once it is mixed with liquid and kneaded.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and mild acidity that contributes to the dough's tender texture.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a short, flaky texture.
Potato yeast or brewer's yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise during the long overnight sponge.

The step that matters

Cover the dough tightly when storing. Covering the dough tightly prevents its surface from drying out, which would toughen the dough and affect how it rises and bakes later.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, buttermilk):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, buttermilk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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