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Breakfast Rolls

A simple yeast roll made with flour, butter or lard, yeast, water or milk, and salt, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Breakfast Rolls

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 ↓

Breakfast 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.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, butter or lard, yeast, water (or milk), and salt.

  2. Knead the dough well on a floured surface until smooth.

  3. Let the dough rest for a few minutes to recover.

Shape and rise

  1. Divide the dough into small pieces and shape them into round rolls.

  2. Place the rolls on a clean baking tray and cover with a damp cloth.

  3. Let them rise in a warm place until light and fluffy.

Bake

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

  2. Brush the rolls with a beaten egg, being careful not to deflate them.

  3. Bake for about 25 minutes 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.

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.

  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).

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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the rolls their structure.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise, leaving the rolls light and fluffy.
Butter or lard
Adds fat that softens the crumb and tenderizes the texture.
Water (or milk)
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form, and provides moisture for the dough.
Beaten egg (in the method)
Promotes browning on the surface and adds a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Let the rolls rise until light and fluffy. Yeast gas expands the shaped dough; underproofed rolls stay dense, while overproofed rolls can collapse in the oven. Handle them gently so the gas is not knocked out.

“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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