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 ↓
Picnic Rolls
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the sponge
Scald the milk and let it cool.
Sift in 1 ½ pints of flour and beat until smooth.
Add the yeast dissolved in ½ cup warm water.
Let the dough raise overnight or set in the morning.
Make and shape the dough
Sift the remaining flour into a bowl, reserving 1 cup for kneading.
Make a hole in the center.
Add sugar, butter, warm water, and salt into the hole.
Mix these ingredients with your hand.
Pour in the sponge and mix thoroughly.
Work in the flour until it forms a smooth lump.
Knead on a floured surface for 10 minutes, using reserved flour as needed for a medium stiff dough.
Place in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise until doubled in size.
Shape into long rolls about the length of your finger and twice as thick, using flour to prevent sticking.
Place rolls close together in long pans and let them rise until 1/3 larger.
Bake and finish
Wet the tops with cold water and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 35 minutes.
Turn out of the pan.
Grease the tops with butter.
Do not cover.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets when baked.
- Milk
- Adds richness and softness to the crumb and helps the dough brown.
- Compressed yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives the rolls their airy texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.
The step that matters
Let the dough rise fully before shaping. Yeast needs time to produce enough gas for the dough to double. Shaping or baking before the dough has risen fully leaves the rolls dense, while overproofing weakens the structure and can collapse them.
“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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