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 ↓
New York Breakfast 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 dough
In a large bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, lard, and bicarbonate of soda.
Gradually mix in cold sweet milk until a dough forms.
Knead the dough lightly and shape it into rolls.
Bake
Bake immediately in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
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.
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets as the rolls bake.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic powder that reacts with bicarbonate of soda to produce gas for rising.
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Alkaline leavening that reacts with the acid to lift the rolls as they bake.
- Lard
- Fat that tenderises the crumb and adds richness to the rolls.
- Cold sweet milk
- Liquid that hydrates the flour and binds the ingredients into a dough.
The step that matters
Bake immediately. Cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda begin producing gas as soon as they are moist, so the dough should go into the hot oven right after shaping to trap that gas and rise well before it loses its lift.
“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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