Batch, barm, cob or bap: what do you call a bread roll? (2024)

FAQs

What do you call a bread roll? ›

"Roll" crops up everywhere, but it's most common in the south, with "bun", which also shows up throughout the country, being the favoured word in the North East. "Barm" is very localised to the Manchester area, and "batch" is incredibly specific: this is used just by residents of Liverpool and Coventry.

These names include roll, and for a minority of the population (usually concentrated in specific regions) bap, barm cake, batch, breadcake, bun, cob, teacake and muffin. A variety of rolls are found in Europe, from white rolls made with wheat flour, to dark rolls containing mostly rye flour.

As another answer describes the simple hand sized bread roll has many different local names. The term Batch was used in several places to describe the baking method in which many rolls were baked together on the same baking sheet.

“The vast majority of people in the South call them rolls. The majority of the people living in the Midlands called them a cob in our research. In the North, a slight majority of people called them barms over baps.” Zoom into the map and you'll reveal microclimates of muffins, batches, tea cakes, bin lids and buns.

1. countable noun. A cob is a round loaf of bread. [British]

Bun – term for a bread roll, bread batch, or bread barm cake, primarily used in Northern England and in much of Canada. Butterflake roll – a New England originated roll made of several layers of dough oriented vertically and separated by thin butter layers.

A bap is, at its simplest, a bread roll. At its more complicated, it is a tender pillow of dough, often made with milk, lard, and butter. A more humble, Scottish version of the brioche. The bap is the ideal bread for a simple meat sandwich.

A bagel (Yiddish: בײגל, romanized: beygl; Polish: bajgiel; also spelled beigel) is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. Bagels are traditionally made from yeasted wheat dough that is shaped by hand into a torus or ring, briefly boiled in water, and then baked.

This could be a barm cake, bread-cake, bap, batch, bun, buttery, muffin, cob, oven bottom, roll or stotty. To add to the confusion, some names mean more than one thing. In the area north of Manchester, bread rolls are called 'teacakes'.

According to Wikipedia, the word could have originated as a variant of 'cop', meaning head. Cob could also have come from the English word 'cot' for cottage, the Welsh cob for top of tuft or the German Kuebel, a large container.

Why is it called batch bread? ›

The name “batch” comes from the way this bread is baked in batches, commonly four or nine loaves in a single tin which are then ripped apart into smaller loafs once baked.

A pair of womens breasts e.g. 'get your baps out daaaarlin'

Bread roll is a term used widely in England, southern Wales and Scotland, whereas bap was the favourite of North Wales, the West Midlands and Staffordshire.

: a small bun or roll.

Cloverleaf roll – American version, consisting of three small balls of dough in a muffin cup, proofed and baked together. Finger roll – soft roll about three times longer than it is wide. French roll – generic term for the bread roll. Also a sweeter, softer roll with milk added to the dough.

Cob. Definition: If you're from another part of the country with a particularly strong dialect you'll know that the UK can't decide on what to call a bread roll. To Birmingham, a simple bread roll is a cob but in other parts of the country it's a bap, barm cake, bun, batch… the list goes on.

Bread rolls are a type of bread that are typically small and round and are frequently served as an appetizer or as a side dish to a meal. It is important to note that the ingredients for bread rolls and bread loaves are the same, but the way they are prepared differs.