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4. Parker House Rolls.

Soft rolls made with butter, sugar, salt, yeast, flour, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 124,287 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

4. Parker House Rolls.

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Add butter, sugar, and salt to milk.

  2. When lukewarm, add dissolved yeast cake and three cups of flour.

  3. Beat thoroughly, cover and let rise until light.

  4. Cut down and add enough flour to knead (it will take about 2-1/2 cups).

  5. Let rise again.

  6. Toss on floured board and knead.

Shape and bake

  1. Pat and roll out to 1/3 inch thickness.

  2. Shape with a biscuit cutter first dipped in flour.

  3. Dip the handle of a case knife in flour and make a crease through the middle of each round.

  4. Brush over 1/2 of each piece with melted butter, fold over, and press edges together.

  5. Place in greased pan, one inch apart, cover, let rise.

  6. Bake in hot oven twelve to fifteen minutes.

By Helen Kinne and Anna M. Cooley. 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.

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.

  1. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter 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 structure that holds the rolls' shape and airy crumb.
Yeast
Produces gas during rising, making the dough light and open-textured.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a tender, rich texture.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds mild sweetness and browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until light before shaping. Yeast needs time to build gas and gluten needs to relax; shaping or baking too early leaves dense rolls with poor rise.

“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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