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Montgomery County Potato Rolls

A yeast-based potato roll made with mashed potatoes, shortening, milk, sugar, eggs, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Montgomery County Potato Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Mix the hot mashed potatoes, shortening, and sugar with 1 cup of milk.

  2. Add the salt and the dissolved yeast cake with a little flour.

  3. Set aside to rise until light.

  4. Once risen, add the beaten eggs and the remaining cup of milk.

  5. Add enough flour to make a soft dough and let it rise until very light.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and cut into small shapes, then let rise again until very light.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 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. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Hot mashed potatoes
Add moisture and softness, giving the rolls a tender crumb.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the rolls soft.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the dough hold its shape.
Yeast cake
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and softens the dough.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until very light. Yeast needs time to produce enough gas to lighten the dough. Rolls shaped or baked before they have risen fully will be dense and heavy.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, egg, flour):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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