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 dough
Combine 3 cups scalded milk, 4 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 8 cups sifted flour, and 1 cake yeast foam dissolved in % cup luke-warm water.
Pour the scalded milk over the salt, sugar and butter.
When lukewarm, beat in 4 cups of flour. Mix well and add the dissolved yeast foam.
Cover closely and let rise in a warm place.
When light, add enough more flour, knead (4 cups).
Cover, let rise until light.
Shape and bake
Roll out to 2 inch thickness.
Shape with a biscuit cutter, brush each shape with melted butter, crease through the center, fold over and press edges together.
Place in a buttered pan 1 inch apart and let rise until very light, then bake in a brisk oven 15 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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Milk + teatop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together738 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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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).
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 chewy crumb.
- Yeast foam
- Produces carbon dioxide that makes the dough rise and become light.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, and softens the crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds a touch of sweetness and browning.
The step that matters
Letting the dough rise until light before shaping. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas for a light crumb. Shaping or baking underproofed dough gives dense rolls, while overproofed dough can collapse.
“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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