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
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.
Prepare the dough
Scald the milk and set aside to cool slightly.
Mix the yeast with the warm milk, adding salt and butter.
Let the mixture sit until bubbly, then add enough flour to make a soft dough.
Knead the dough and let it rise until doubled in size.
Shape and bake
Roll out the dough to about 1 inch thick and cut into large round pieces.
Place small bits of butter on one side of each piece, then fold over.
Let the rolls rise again until puffy.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until light brown.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Yeast
- Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become light.
- Rich milk
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the crumb and aiding browning.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor in the dough and folds.
The step that matters
Letting the dough rise until doubled. Yeast needs enough time and warmth to build gas and structure. Underproofed dough bakes dense, while overproofed dough can collapse or lose its 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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