Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,516 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Parker House Rolls
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Soften the yeast in lukewarm water.
Add the softened yeast to the cream diluted with boiling water, cooled to lukewarm.
Stir in 1½ cups of flour and beat thoroughly.
Cover and let rise until light and puffy.
Add sugar, salt, melted butter, and the remaining flour.
Mix well and knead for 15 minutes until smooth and elastic.
Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk.
Shape and bake
Turn the dough onto a floured surface and roll into a sheet about ½ inch thick.
Cut the sheet into rounds.
Brush half the surface of each round with melted butter.
Fold over each round and place in a buttered pan.
Bake until light.
Glaze the tops with a mixture of 1 teaspoon cornstarch cooked in a little water.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter and flour 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the rolls their structure and chew.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light and airy.
- Cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving the rolls a soft, tender crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and contributes flavour and browning.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and gentle browning to the crust.
- Cornstarch
- Forms a glaze on the tops that gives a glossy finish.
The step that matters
Kneading and the second rise. Kneading for the full 15 minutes develops the gluten so the dough stretches and holds gas. If it is under-kneaded or the dough is not allowed to double, the rolls will be dense rather than light.
“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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