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
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sponge
Combine 2 cups scalded milk, 4 tablespoonfuls butter, and 2 teaspoonfuls salt.
Add 2 tablespoonfuls sugar and 1 yeast cake.
Pour the hot milk over the sugar and salt.
When cool, add yeast cake dissolved in one-half cup lukewarm water, then beat in roughly three cups flour.
Let rise until light and bubbly.
Knead and shape
Add butter and enough flour to knead.
Knead about ten minutes.
Let rise twice the bulk.
Shape the rolls.
Bake
Let rise in the pan until twice the size.
Bake in a quick oven for fifteen minutes.
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. See the original page.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 network that gives the rolls their structure and chew.
- Yeast
- Produces carbon dioxide during fermentation, making the dough rise and become light.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, and its proteins help give a soft, tender crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and enriches the flavor.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning in the crust.
The step that matters
Let the milk cool before adding the yeast. Scalded milk is very hot and can kill yeast cells. Cooling it to lukewarm before the yeast is added keeps the yeast alive so the dough can rise properly.
“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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