Name: Winter Rolls
Ingredients: 3 quarts flour; 1 quart buttermilk; 1 cup lard; 1 quart cold water; ½ cup potato yeast or 1 cup brewer's yeast; salt to taste

Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Winter Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, scald the buttermilk and pour it over the flour.
Add the lard and mix well.
Stir in the cold water and add the yeast, mixing thoroughly.
Cover and let rise in a warm place overnight.
In the morning, add salt and enough flour to form a moderately stiff dough.
Let rise again in a warm place, then knead down.
Place in a large bowl covered with a tin pan to prevent drying and set aside in a cool place.

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.

Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,355 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Buttermilk + potatotop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together153 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).