Anyway Geordie here but raised a Fifer too. So naturally they are rolls. All other answers are wrong. Confused the hell out of my Mum when we first moved up, and resulted in many an accidently bought iced bun.
What confuses me about most non-bun areas is that it’s not just a different word, it’s a collection of words and which one is correct seems to change based on size and consistency and even contents of said bun.
Are they always rolls, where you are now, or are they subject to a similarly complex system as elsewhere?
I’m in Edinburgh, and they are almost exclusively rolls, or morning rolls. Sometimes baps. Not sure that isn’t just for the giggles. Never buns. A bun is sweet. But since this is a country that calls sugary fizzy drinks in cans “juice”, I don’t think we can take the high ground here.
Well, this one in the photo is a morning roll. It may even be batch roll (baked as a half dozen so you rip them apart). You may have other rolls names after their attributes. Like a crusty roll, or a well fired roll, or a burger roll, or a dinner roll (smaller, crusty and you eat it with your dinner - which is the meal at the end of the day, not in the middle, that’s lunch). But importantly they are rolls 😁
Was going to say something similar. Wit bolletje translates to white little ball, so not far from roll.
We also call them zachte bolletjes or soft little balls. Or just zacht broodje which means soft little bread. As opposed to harde broodjes (hard little breads) which I guess refer to keizerbroodjes (little emperor breads (the bread being little, not the emperor)) which are emperor rolls.
My family is from Limburg, Netherlands, but we may also have been a bit weird. This is just Dutch, by the way, not Limburgish.
I’m in Connecticut, USA. If that’s meant to be eaten with butter or used to sop up gravy, it’s a roll. If you slice it in half and put a patty or other protein filling in it, it’s a bun.
While not claiming to be any authority on the bread sciences, I’d say that a roll is roughly the size of just the palm, while a bun is closer to the size of the full hand.
A bun also passes the Burger Test: Could you easily fit a burger on this bread? If yes, it’s a bun; if no, it’s a roll.
See I don’t know if it’s a size thing. I think it has to do with accessorizing. If you put a filling in it, or iced it, it’s a bun. But plain it’s just a roll.
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