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Parker House Rolls

A yeast roll made with flour, lard, milk, yeast, sugar, egg, and salt, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Parker House Rolls

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 Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. Rub 3 tablespoons of lard into 2 quarts of flour.

  2. Make a hole in the middle and add 1 pint of cold milk, 2 cups of yeast, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1 egg, and 1 teaspoon of salt.

  3. Let the mixture stand overnight without mixing.

Shape and bake

  1. In the morning, mix the dough and let it rise.

  2. Once risen, cut the dough into rolls.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until very light.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. 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 gluten network that gives the rolls their structure and chew.
Lard
Shortens the gluten strands, giving the rolls a tender, soft crumb.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light and airy.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and helps the dough brown lightly in the oven.
Egg
Adds richness and structure, helping the rolls hold their shape and color.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand overnight without mixing. The slow, unmixed rest lets the yeast ferment gradually and develop flavor. Mixing too early or skipping the rest can leave the dough less risen and less flavorful.

“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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