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Parker House Rolls

A yeast or baking powder roll made with milk, butter, flour, sugar, salt, and soda, rolled, cut, and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 17 ingredients
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Parker House Rolls

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Parker House Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Melt the butter in the warm milk.

  2. Add the sugar, salt, and flour.

  3. Let the mixture rise overnight.

  4. Mix the dough until soft.

  5. In the morning, add half a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a spoonful of water.

  6. Mix in enough flour to reach biscuit dough consistency.

Shape the rolls

  1. Roll the dough out no more than a quarter of an inch thick.

  2. Cut the dough with a large round cutter.

  3. Spread soft butter over the tops.

  4. Fold one half over the other by doubling it.

  5. Place the rolls apart so they have room to rise.

  6. Cover and place them near the fire for fifteen or twenty minutes before baking.

Bake

  1. Bake in a quick oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

833Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
120 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

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

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 structure that holds the dough and gives the rolls their body.
Yeast
Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light and airy.
Milk
Adds moisture and tenderness to the dough.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and enriches the flavour.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise before shaping. The rise develops gas and gluten structure in the yeast dough; rolling or baking too early leaves the rolls dense because the dough has not built enough lift.

“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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