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Dinner or Breakfast Rolls

A soft, yeasted roll that can be served for dinner or breakfast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Dinner or Breakfast Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Crumble the butter into the flour and mix in the salt.

  2. In a basin, combine the yeast and sugar with the warm milk.

  3. Hollow the center of the flour, pour in the yeast mixture, and stir in enough flour to make a thick batter.

  4. Cover with a cloth and let it rise in a warm place for about 1 hour.

  5. Once risen, mix in the whisked egg and additional warm milk to form a smooth dough.

  6. Cover again and let it rise for 30 to 45 minutes.

Shape and prove

  1. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and divide it into 24 equal portions.

  2. Knead each portion lightly into small round or olive-shaped rolls.

  3. Make a slight incision around each roll and cut once or twice across the top.

  4. Place the rolls on floured baking sheets, spaced an inch or two apart.

  5. Let them prove for 15 to 20 minutes.

Bake and cool

  1. Wash the tops with a mixture of egg yolk and a little milk.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.

  3. Turn the rolls upside down on a dish to cool after baking.

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 of the dough once its proteins form gluten with liquid and kneading.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments the sugar, making the dough rise and become light.
Warm milk
Hydrates the flour and dissolves the yeast, adding moisture and softness to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives the rolls a richer flavor.
Egg
Enriches the dough with protein and fat for a softer texture, and its yolk wash helps browning.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise fully before shaping. Yeast needs time to produce enough gas for the dough to expand. Rising too briefly leaves dense rolls, while the second rise gives the final light texture.

“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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