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Bread

Cornmeal Rolls

A soft roll made with flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, salt, butter, egg, and milk.

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

Cornmeal Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Sift the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, and salt together.

  3. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Shape and bake

  1. Beat the egg and mix it with the milk, adding enough milk to form a soft dough.

  2. Knead the dough lightly, then roll it out and cut with a biscuit cutter.

  3. Butter half of each roll, fold, and press the edges together.

  4. Bake for 20 minutes.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure once its gluten forms into a soft dough.
Cornmeal
Adds a slightly grainy texture and a mild corn flavor to the rolls.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, helping the rolls rise and become light.
Butter
Cut into the flour for tenderness and richness, and adds flavor and moisture.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds richness and structure.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form a soft dough and adds tenderness.

The step that matters

Adding milk to form the dough. Add just enough milk to make a soft dough. Too much liquid makes the dough sticky and harder to shape, while too little leaves it dry and crumbly. Light kneading keeps the rolls tender because overworking develops too much gluten.

“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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