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Rye Rolls

A quick rye roll made with rye meal, flour, sugar, egg, sour milk, baking soda, butter, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Rye Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix the rye meal, flour, sugar, and salt.

  3. In another bowl, combine the egg, sour milk, and melted butter.

  4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.

  5. Stir in the baking soda until fully incorporated.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a greased baking sheet.

  2. Bake for 15-20 minutes or 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Rye meal
Gives the rolls their earthy flavour and a denser, more tender crumb than wheat flour alone.
All-purpose flour
Provides gluten-forming structure so the rolls hold their shape.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that makes the rolls rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to leaven the batter and help it rise.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Stir in the baking soda until fully incorporated. Baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets the acidic sour milk, so the batter should be shaped and baked promptly. Mixing it evenly prevents pockets of soda that cause uneven rising or bitter spots.

“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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