Bulkie roll

Bulkie roll

Spicy salmon burger on a bulkie
Alternative names	Bulkie
Type	Bread roll
Place of origin	United States
Region or state	New England

A bulkie roll or bulkie is a New England regional variety of sandwich roll. Sandwiches made with bulkie rolls are common in area delicatessens, restaurants, and institutional food services. Bulkie rolls are larger and firmer than hamburger buns. The crust is usually slightly crisp or crunchy, but bulkie rolls are not hard rolls. The bread within the roll is similar to ordinary white bread, with a texture that is neither very chewy nor very fluffy, without any yellow color or egg taste, and not noticeably sweet. They are either plain or topped with poppy seeds.

They are similar to and sometimes equated with kaiser rolls, but kaiser rolls are noticeably sweeter and often topped with poppy seeds.

History

Lee Shai Weissbach writes of a Manchester, New Hampshire, Jewish grocery store, pre-World-War-II, whose owner was "affectionately remembered for 'the barrel of pickles and the hefty corned-beef sandwiches on bulkie rolls that he dispensed.'"

Etymology

"Bulke" or "Bilke" (the final "e" is pronounced) is the Yiddish language word for a small roll made with fine wheat flour and kneaded with eggs. "Bulkie" is also a Polish word for rolls, from which the Yiddish term may be derived given the large pre-World War II Jewish population in Poland.

See also

• Bulkele, Bilkel, Bulkel
• List of bread rolls
• Sandwich bread