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
Make the dough
Add one quart of cold boiled milk, two quarts of flour, and one large tablespoonful of lard rubbed into the flour.
Make a hole in the middle of the flour. Add the yeast dissolved in water, one-half cup of sugar, and a little salt to the mixture.
Let it stand until morning.
Rise and shape
Knead it hard and let it rise.
Knead again at four in the afternoon.
Cut out ready to bake and let it rise again.
Bake
Bake for twenty minutes.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 5 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 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Cake | not in our table | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
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.
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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 gluten network that gives the rolls their structure and chew.
- Yeast
- Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes the rolls rise and become airy.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the crumb and aiding browning.
- Lard
- Adds fat, tenderizing the crumb and keeping the rolls soft.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning in the crust.
The step that matters
Knead again at four in the afternoon. Kneading develops the gluten that traps the gas from fermenting yeast. Timing it with the dough's rise matters, since over-proofed dough loses structure and collapses.
“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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