Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Filled Roll


Recommended Posts

I'm a US of A guy who's been reading a lot of Ian Rankin lately. His characters often dine on a roll, often called a filled roll, which might have any number of things inside of it: for example, Rebus might attempt to quiet a hangover with, of all things, a bacon roll.

My question is to the composition and construction of these items. Are they simply a sandwich? I mean, a bun of some sort cut open and made into a sandwich? Or are they "filled" in the sense that the roll/dough is filled/made with a stuffing prior to baking?

Thanks....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Dignan. First, a roll is just a round, individual portion of bread - self-contained. (After this comes a bap, then a sandwich, in nosh hierarchy). Having a roll, as in a sandwich, tends to be a simple affair - culinary equivalent of the St Bernard with his flask of brandy. A bacon roll - butter, bacon, and if your a 'soft southern sh--e' like me, plenty of ketchup.

Also, long tradition over here of dealing with hangovers by having a big greasy breakfast. So, a bacon roll is tipping your hat in that direction.

"Gimme a pig's foot, and a bottle of beer..." Bessie Smith

Flickr Food

"111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321" Bruce Frigard 'Winesonoma' - RIP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks . . . . I was getting an image of it as an integrated baked product, something like dough that was 'stuffed' with our filling, then baked. But I think what I'm hearing from you is that the roll is a seperate baked item, which then is cut open or in half and then combined with your favorite whatevers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yup. A filled roll is a plain white bread roll, split open around its equator and filled with whatever you desire. on the west coast of Scotland you ask for "a roll an' sausage" (ie sausage in such a roll) as distinct from "a piece an' sausage" (which is a sausage sandwich made with sliced bread).

of course, you do know that in Scotland sausage is square and flat? if you want a normal tubular shaped sausage, you have to ask for 'links'.

Fi Kirkpatrick

tofu fi fie pho fum

"Your avatar shoes look like Marge Simpson's hair." - therese

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mm-mmmm! Black pudding and fried egg is the filling of choice for me. Is them boys tasty!

You've got to be precise about the rolls as well - they are what are known as "morning rolls" which are soft, floury baps. I think, in the good old days (I may be wrong here) they were linked with the dairies - either you bought them from the dairy or your milkman delivered them. Nowadays you can get them from local newsagents in Edinburgh.

PS

Edinburgh

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A bacon roll - butter, bacon, and if your a 'soft southern sh--e' like me, plenty of ketchup.

Ketchup? Nah, at least not for me: the perfect bacon buttie has got to have brown sauce, preferably Daddy's. And the roll (white of course, no other will do) has got to be slathered with butter so that when the hot bacon is added, the butter melts and dribbles down your chin as you devour it (along with aforementioned Daddy's sauce).

MP

PS. My kids, perhaps by dint of having been born and raised in the *soft* West Country, both prefer ketchup in their vision of the PBB. Perhaps I like brown sauce because I first had a bacon buttie cooked by then-to-be mother-in-law, who is a Midlander (not just a Midlander, a Brummie though no one in the family would actually admit to it).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bacon roll is just that: hot thick (if you are lucky) bacon in a plain white burger bun without the seeds. As distint from a bacon roly-poly, which is a suet pudding, or a bacon butty which is between buttered sliced white bread...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bacon roll is just that... bacon roly-poly, which is a suet pudding, or a bacon butty which is between buttered sliced white bread...

Good god, the wonders of the Internet never cease to amaze me.

Jackal's authoritative definition of a bacon roll, bacon roly-poly, and bacon butty made me do a Google to see if I've had it wrong all these years (which is quite possible, believe me).

What do I discover? Brownsauce.net, 'the site dedicated to bacon butties'. What next?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What the heck is HP sauce? Is it like A1? Or Lea and Perrins Steak Sauce?

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

Link to comment
Share on other sites

HP Sauce is a thick fairly fruity thick brown sauce, http://www.hpfoods.com/brands/hpsauce/

Different from the various thickened Lea and Perrins sauces. I think the thickeness originallu was from pureed dried fruits, more like a pureed chutney than Worcester with added starch or gum thickeners. Like Lea and Perrins, these brown sauces often had a colonial origin.

HP once stood for Houses of Parliament

I prefer it to Daddy's. HP is distinctly upmarket and less vinegary than Daddy's. Either is essential for a bacon butty.

I forgot to add that bacon rolls are something different again: rolled up bits of bacon served as garnish for turkey; devils on horseback without the mushroom or prune, or angels on horseback without the oyster...

Edited by jackal10 (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What do I discover? Brownsauce.net, 'the site dedicated to bacon butties'. What next?

Oh my god. That's a reason to live. How do you tell someone raised in the British Isles? Show them that site and attach electrodes to their drool glands. I'm telling you - that's how British Intelligence used to find members of the Gestapo - raise up enormous pictures of bacon butties, and arrest everyone who didn't wipe their mouth.

In my case... every Sunday the two nephews (8 and 6) have to play rugby, rain or snow, sun or freezing, it matters not a jot. It's part of being British, being forced as an unfeasibly small child to play sports in unfeasibly horrible weather. Damnit, I had to do it, and so do they (although they seem to enjoy themselves far more than I ever did). And part of this ritual of torture is watching the warm, cozy looking adults standing on the sidelines with steaming hot cups of tea and bacon rolls. In this horrible cycle, finally after all of those bloody years of playing football or rugby in the freezing cold, I finally get to be the one with the cup of tea and bacon roll. Actually, I usually buy them three at a time (just in case someone asks me for a bite - as I'm not bloody sharing!). That's the only reason I go. I couldn't even tell you which team they play for. Finally, my darkest secret revealed.

"Gimme a pig's foot, and a bottle of beer..." Bessie Smith

Flickr Food

"111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321" Bruce Frigard 'Winesonoma' - RIP

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It has to be brown sauce, and preferably Daddy's. After all they had the early celebratory endorsement of Tommy Trinder (yes I always wondered who he was as well).

I have known others to add vinegar to bacon sarnies which might do the trick in the absence of Daddy's.

Edit to add:

HP is distinctly upmarket

My point exactly.

Edited by Winot (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

HP Sauce is a thick fairly fruity thick brown sauce...HP once stood for Houses of Parliament...I prefer it to Daddy's. Either is essential for a bacon butty.

Brand of brown is of course a personal preference, but I'm glad we agree that it is an essential element of the bacon butty...

And of course we should mention, in the great panoply of brown sauces, the sub-variety known as 'fruity sauce'. Not my favourite, I hasten to add, but in a pinch, I've been known to shake out a good dollop or two of HP Fruity or even, yes, Tescos own-brand Fruity Sauce to rescue a bacon butty from the dustbin of oblivion. Not quite the same tang of pure brown but better than nuffin'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hesitate to inject a dissonant note into this hymn to brown sauce, but... FECH, you people are all WRONG. brown sauce lives only to serve the scrambled egg and, somewhat curiously, the cheese souffle. it has no place in a bacon butty. the only correct thing to put on a bacon butty is... MORE BACON. I will have no truck with abominating them with brown sauce.

Now, sausage sandwiches, on the other hand, get slathered in English mustard and a layer of Ma Kirkpatrick's Seville orange marmelade. oh yes.

Fi

Fi Kirkpatrick

tofu fi fie pho fum

"Your avatar shoes look like Marge Simpson's hair." - therese

Link to comment
Share on other sites

HERESY!

I suppose you eat your chip (french fries) without vinegar (or salad cream if in Holland or Belgium) as well?

HP and Daddy's are made by the same people, part of the Danone group, as is Amoy, and Lea and Perrins...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

HERESY!

I suppose you eat your chip (french fries) without vinegar (or salad cream if in Holland or Belgium) as well?

au contraire! I'm a firm believer in malt vinegar - and plenty of salt - on chips! I'm not a great fan of skinny frites (can't taste the potato - what's the point)? But the chips in The Union on Greek Street in Soho, which are fat and covered in huge salt flakes, get mayonnaise. mmmmm.

Fi Kirkpatrick

tofu fi fie pho fum

"Your avatar shoes look like Marge Simpson's hair." - therese

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a 'crispy bacon sandwich' at the Wolseley for my breakfast the morning. I was surprised to get a roll, rather than white-sliced. Should i have been?

By the way, i was offered HP or tomato ketchup. I chose the former.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

of course, you do know that in Scotland sausage is square and flat?  if you want a normal tubular shaped sausage, you have to ask for 'links'.

And here in the US, at many breakfast joints you have the option between (or of both) links style sausage and patty sausage, though the patty would more likely be circular and not square . . . .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wait a moment, please. Another Yank asking for an explanation:

Marco_Polo mentioned a "PBB" -- :unsure: huh? surely not Peanut Butter and Bacon?

Hi Suzanne, sorry to have confused the issue. PBB simply stands (in my lexicon) for the 'perfect bacon buttie', the quest for which is never ending.

The best bacon? Dry-cured Cumberland from Bar Woodall's, Waberthwaite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It has to be brown sauce, and preferably Daddy's. After all they had the early celebratory endorsement of Tommy Trinder (yes I always wondered who he was as well).

I have known others to add vinegar to bacon sarnies which might do the trick in the absence of Daddy's.

Daddies is definitely the sauce to go for. And the vinegary taste is absolutely key.

I remember once making a bacon sandwich (brown bread, bacon, Daddies) using some Suffolk sweet-cure bacon.

Talk about a revelation - the sweetness of the bacon with the sourness of the sauce was amazing. It reminded me of a superior pork bun.

Now if only I could find that Suffolk sweet-cure bacon again - I can't for the life of me remember where I got it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a 'crispy bacon sandwich' at the Wolseley for my breakfast the morning.

Crispy?? Urgh!

Bacon for a bacon sarnie should be floppy, not browned, and THICK SLICED.

Can't cook it crisp. To make crisp bacon it must be thin, which is another thing altogether.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I must be honest I like cheap brown sauce, I use to favour the Tesco own brand, but they changed the recipe by improving its quality, this now makes it a useful substitute for OK Sauce.

When I was growing up we had both HP Fruity & HP Sauce on the table, it was something like a coming of age ceremony when you graduated from the fruity to the real deal HP. And you truly knew you were a man when you started putting Colemans mustard on your sausages.

My heretical bacon bap has to contain some tomato slices, cheap brown sauce spread on the cut surfaces of the bap, and thick cut fatty bacon- No butter, just the bacon drippings.

In the UK even McDonalds put brown sauce on their bacon roll (breakfast menu item), but they appear to use something akin to brown ketchup.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Know absolutely nothing about this fascinating topic, but I wondered what the experts think about the following alternatives:

(1) Major Gray's (any major brand)

(2) Patak's Lime Pickle (in small amounts, of course)

(3) Japanese "Tonkatsu" Sauce

(4) Heinz A-1 Sauce

(5) German "Curry Ketchup"

(6) American Southern-Style "BBQ Sauce"

Also, while we've had a lot of discussion about sauces and the proper cooking of the bacon, I was wondering about the buttie slices. Should the the proper buttie bread have a firm consistency to hold up to sauce, of a saggy one to facilitate that "comfort food" experience. . .?

Sun-Ki Chai
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~sunki/

Former Hawaii Forum Host

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...