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Parker-house Biscuit

A yeast‑leavened biscuit made with sifted flour, warm scalded milk, sugar, salt, butter, and liquid yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Colbrath, M. Tarbox · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk 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 Biscuit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sift the flour into a deep pan and make a hollow in the middle.

  2. Put in the other ingredients in the following order: sugar, butter (creamed), milk, and yeast.

Mix and rise

  1. Do not stir after putting them together.

  2. Arrange the mixture about two o'clock in the afternoon and set it at a temperature of sixty degrees.

  3. In the evening, mix all together and knead for fifteen minutes.

  4. Let it rise overnight.

Shape and bake

  1. In the morning, cut out the biscuits, set each one apart from its neighbor, and, when sufficiently risen, bake for fifteen minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

653Calories
21 gProtein
9 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Colbrath, M. Tarbox. 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. See the original page.

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.

  1. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk 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 dough's structure, holding the gas produced by the yeast as the biscuits rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the dough and helps it come together.
Yeast
Produces gas during the long rise, which makes the biscuits light and airy.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning to the crust.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and gives a richer texture.

The step that matters

Let the biscuits rise fully before baking. Bake only when the biscuits have risen sufficiently. Underproofed dough bakes dense, while overproofed dough collapses because its gas-trapping structure stretches too thin. Spacing the shapes lets each one rise without touching its neighbor.

“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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