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Bread

Vienna Rolls or Bread

A yeast roll made with Vienna flour, butter, milk, and egg, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Vienna Rolls or Bread

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 the dough

  1. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl.

  2. In a small bowl, mix the yeast and castor sugar with a wooden spoon until liquid.

  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the milk, and heat until just tepid.

  4. Pour the milk mixture onto the yeast and add the beaten egg.

  5. Strain the mixture into the flour and mix to form a dough, adding more tepid milk if necessary.

  6. Cover and let the dough rise in a warm place for two hours.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into twists, plaits, or horseshoes.

  2. Place on a lightly buttered baking sheet, cover, and let rise for half an hour.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for twenty minutes.

  4. Brush the rolls with a mixture of heated milk and butter for a glossy finish.

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

Vienna or pastry flour
Provides the gluten structure that holds the dough and rolls their open crumb.
German yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become airy.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and yeast and gives the dough a softer, richer crumb.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and contributes richness and flavour.
Egg
Adds protein and fat that enrich the dough and add softness to the crumb.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise fully. Yeast needs time and warmth to build gas and gluten strength; rising too briefly leaves dense rolls, while the second rise gives the shaped rolls their final lightness.

“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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