Barms and baps were very similar – rolls with a very soft crust – but baps usually had a floury top.

I grew up on the outskirts of Liverpool, and we used to have barms or barmcakes (same thing, just one is abbreviated), cobs, rolls, baps, batches and teacakes. I very much doubt if the above list is definitive, so if you have any additional names for bread rolls please do let me know in the comments below. What do you call bread rolls where you live? And is that different from where you grew up? If you’re interested in delving further into lexical variations for bread, you might like to check out this mapping project by Linguistics and English Language undergrad students at The University of Manchester. So instead I thought I’d present an alphabetical list of the 21 variants I’ve found so far: The ensuing replies threw up multiple conflicting opinions from all corners of the UK and further afield (including the fact that most people refer to the image shown here as a chip butty). But online reference sources vary so much that I decided that was just asking for trouble!Ī recent tweet I spotted highlighted this very conundrum: My original intention when starting to write this post was to list the popular names for bread rolls by region. I’d certainly never heard of a batch before until I came to nearby Coventry as a student. If you don’t use the correct local term, there’s a good chance you’ll be corrected or even given the wrong item. Go into any bakery or café today and try to order a cheese roll. It’s great to see so many of these historic and regional terms still in use and I hope bakers around the country continue to help preserve these local distinctions. There are numerous words for ‘bread roll’ in use around the country and this explains why some include the word ‘cake’. Kaiser roll / Vienna roll – a crusty round roll with four points meeting in the centre Geographical variationsĪccording to Jonnie Robinson, a curator at the British Library who specialises in accents and dialects: “Bread was historically a generic term for any baked item and ‘cake’ and ‘loaf’ originally referred to the shape of that ‘bread’, with ‘cake’ usually being smaller and ‘loaf’ meaning ‘large bread’. So additional words are sometimes used to describe the shape and/or texture, for example:įinger roll – a soft, long roll (ideal for hot dogs) As a result, many similar products are now grouped under one name.Īlthough universally recognised throughout Britain, the word roll is somewhat generic: it doesn’t explain the type of roll being referred to. Over time, however, these differences merged.

It’s believed that the first roll was created in the south east of England in 1581.īakers in different towns and cities used to name their bread rolls according to how they made the dough, the size of the rolls and how they baked them. But I wasn’t prepared for quite how many… Origin of the bread rollĪ roll is a small – usually round – loaf of bread. Following on from my previous post on names for plimsolls, attention now turns to what we Brits call the humble bread roll.Īs I suspected, there’s a far greater variety of names for bread rolls than there is for elasticated footwear.

Bread shapes and names