Why it works: Milk and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Potato 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 scalded milk, flour, mashed potato, lard, beaten eggs, and salt.
Add the dissolved yeast mixture and mix well.
Let the mixture rise for 2 hours.
Gradually add about 1 quart of flour to form a stiff dough.
Let the dough rise for another 2 hours.
Shape and bake
Knead the dough and shape it into rolls.
Place the rolls in pans and let them rise for 2 more hours before baking.
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour 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
- Flour
- Builds the gluten structure that gives the rolls their chewy, supported crumb.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the rolls set and brown.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
- Mashed potato
- Holds moisture, keeping the rolls soft and slow to dry out.
- Yeast
- Produces gas during rising, leavening the dough so the rolls become light.
- Scalded milk
- Adds moisture and milk sugars that aid softness and browning.
The step that matters
Forming the stiff dough. Adding the flour gradually lets it absorb evenly, so the dough reaches a stiff but workable texture. Adding it all at once can leave dense pockets of flour and make the dough hard to knead.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, egg):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, egg. 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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