Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Parker House Rolls
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Boil one pint of sweet milk, and when partly cooled, set aside.
Melt half a cup of white sugar and one tablespoon of lard or butter in the cooled milk; when lukewarm, add half a cup of yeast; make a hole in two quarts of flour and pour this mixture in.
If for tea, set to rise overnight.
In the morning, mix well and knead for half an hour.
Set to rise again.
Shape and bake
About four o'clock, knead again for ten or fifteen minutes.
Roll out thinner than for biscuit.
Rub melted butter upon half the surface and fold it upon the other.
Set to rise once more in pans.
When light, bake twenty minutes in a hot oven.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Lard | 1 tbsp (12.8g) | 115 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they 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 structure that holds the dough and lets it rise into a soft crumb.
- Yeast
- Produces gas during rising, making the rolls light and airy.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the crumb and helping browning.
- White sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and keeps the rolls soft.
The step that matters
Letting the dough rise until light before baking. Yeast gas must fill the dough fully before baking; underproofed rolls stay dense, while overproofed ones collapse and lose structure in the oven.
“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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