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Dessert

Parker House Rolls

Soft rolls made with milk, butter, yeast, sugar, salt, flour, baking soda, and glazed with sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Parker House Rolls

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Parker House Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Melt butter in warm milk.

  2. Add sugar, salt, and flour.

  3. Let dough rise overnight.

  4. Dissolve baking soda in water and mix the baking soda mixture into the dough.

  5. Add flour until dough has biscuit-dough stiffness.

Shape the rolls

  1. Roll dough to less than ½ inch thick.

  2. Cut dough with a large round cutter.

  3. Spread soft butter over the tops.

  4. Fold each round in half.

  5. Place rolls apart on greased baking sheets and cover them.

Rise and bake

  1. Let them rise near a warm place for 15-20 minutes.

  2. Brush the tops with sweet milk before baking for a glaze.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 °F (200 °C).

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the gluten structure that gives the rolls their body and chew.
Yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes the rolls rise and become airy.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and its milk sugars help the crust brown.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a soft, rich texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the dough's acidity to release gas, adding extra lift.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Adding flour until the dough reaches biscuit-dough stiffness. Too little flour leaves a sticky dough that is hard to shape and spreads in the oven, while too much makes the rolls dense and dry. Stopping at the stiffness described keeps the texture light.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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