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Whole Wheat Parker House Rolls

A soft, whole wheat roll made with mashed potatoes, yeast, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Whole Wheat Parker House Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Cream the potatoes, yeast, and sugar together, then add the sweet milk.

  2. Warm the flour and place it in a pan.

  3. Make a nest in the center and pour in the liquid ingredients, stirring until about ⅔ of the flour is mixed in.

  4. Add the shortening and salt, then continue to mix and knead the dough until smooth and soft.

  5. Place the dough in a covered bowl and set aside to rise until it doubles in volume.

  6. Press the dough back down and allow it to rise again until nearly triple in bulk.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough on a floured board to a thickness of ½ inch and cut into shapes like biscuits.

  2. Fold half of each round over in an envelope form, sticking a finger through both layers to hold it down.

  3. Grease the tops of the rolls and set aside to rise until double in size before baking.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  5. When done, remove from the oven and brush each roll with melted butter.

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.

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 + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Potato + wheattop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour 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
Provides the structure that traps gas and holds the rolls together as they rise.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, which makes the dough rise and become light.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and richness, and softens the dough for a tender crumb.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the rolls soft.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and some browning in the oven.
Potatoes
Add moisture and starch that help keep the rolls soft and fresh.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise to double and then nearly triple. Yeast gas expansion gives the rolls their lightness. Rising too little leaves dense rolls, while over-proofing weakens the gluten network so the rolls may collapse or turn coarse.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, wheat, flour):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Beetrootfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, wheat, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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