I play softball at Utica College in Upstate New York. My team is crazy. We recently have gotten in a huge debate. To us, it was so important and seems like the debate of the century. The question at large is, what in fact is the difference between a bun, and a roll. To my surprise, while doing research, we found that we were not the only ones with this question in mind. Here are my findings.
The definition of a bun is as follows, “A bun is a small, sometimes sweet, bread-based item. Though they come in many shapes and sizes, they are most commonly hand-sized or smaller, with a round top and flat bottom. Buns are usually made from flour, sugar, milk, yeast, and butter. Common varieties contain small fruit or nuts, are topped with icing or caramel, or filled with jam or cream. Some types of buns are filled with various meats.”
So for clarification, a bun would be considered something like a cinnamon bun, a honey bun, or other snacks of that nature. This makes sense as the word bun is stated in the name. When the definition of a bun says “filled with various meats”, this is implying a hot dog bun, or a hamburger bun as pictured, another thing we knew going into this. There is no mention in this particular definition to a bun being an accessory to a sandwich, which is an interesting finding.
The definition of a roll is as follows,“A roll is a small, often round loaf of bread served as a meal accompaniment (eaten plain or with butter). A roll can be served and eaten whole or cut transversely and dressed with filling between the two halves. Rolls are also commonly used to make sandwiches similar to those produced using slices of bread.”
For clarification, when you are at a restaurant the server does not bring you out buns, they bring you out a basket of delicious rolls. Most restaurants have delicious rolls, Texas Roadhouse rolls being my favorite (shameless plug). A warm dinner roll with melted butter on thanksgiving has got to be engraved in all of our memories. This definition says that in fact, rolls are used to make a sandwich. I frequently will use a roll to make my sandwich when lunchtime rolls around.
In conclusion, this may be a very, very miniscule finding in the grand scheme of the universe. There honestly is little to no difference between the two different takes on bread.Them both being delicious is something we can all settle on. But one thing is for sure, UCSB will sleep better tonight after knowing the difference between a bun, and a roll.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_roll
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bun