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Parker House Rolls
Rub one-half table-spoon of butter, and one-half table-spoon of lard into two quarts of sifted flour; into a well in the middle pour one pint of cold boiled milk, and add one-half cup of yeast, one-half cup of sugar, and a little salt. If wanted for tea, rub the flour and butter, and boil the milk, and cool it the night before; add sugar, yeast and salt, and turn all into the flour, but do not stir. Let stand over night; in the morning stir up, knead, and let rise till near tea-time; mold and let rise again, and bake quickly. To mold, cut with cake-cutter; put a little melted butter on one-half and lap nearly over on the other half. Place them in the pan about three-quarters of an inch apart. - Mrs. V. G. Hush, Minneapolis, Minn.
A long-rise overnight sponge dough, written for a cook who kept homemade yeast and judged rising by the clock of the household rather than by volume. A few translations make it workable.
- The yeast"One-half cup of yeast" means a half cup of liquid homemade or brewer's yeast, not dry granules. Substitute about 2 1/4 teaspoons (one packet) of active dry yeast, and add roughly a half cup of extra liquid to keep the dough's hydration where the original intended.
- Boiled milkScalding was done to kill wild organisms and to deactivate whey proteins that slacken dough. With pasteurised milk it is optional, but the milk must be fully cool before it meets the yeast.
- Flour quantityTwo quarts of sifted flour is about 8 cups, or 2 lb. This makes a large batch, roughly three dozen rolls; halve it comfortably.
- "Bake quickly"This calls for a hot oven; period "quick oven" is generally reckoned somewhere around 400-450F. Rolls this size need about 12-15 minutes at 425F, until well browned on top and hollow-sounding underneath.
- "Do not stir"The overnight instruction is deliberate: the liquid sits in a well in the flour and ferments as a loose sponge. Whatever the reasoning behind it, leave it alone until morning, as the recipe directs.
- The foldCutting rounds, buttering one half and lapping it over is what makes these Parker House rolls rather than plain dinner rolls. Press the seam lightly so it holds; the butter keeps the fold from sealing shut and gives the split-open interior.
- Timing to the modern day"Let rise till near tea-time" assumed a cool nineteenth-century kitchen. In a 70F room the morning rise will take 1 to 2 hours, and the shaped rolls 45 minutes to an hour. Judge by doubling in bulk, not by the clock.
- FatA half tablespoon each of butter and lard is very little fat for 8 cups of flour; these are lean rolls that depend on the melted butter in the fold. Shortening or additional butter can stand in for the lard without changing the character much.
Parker House rolls take their name from the Parker House hotel in Boston, opened by Harvey Parker in the 1850s and long famous for its bread; the folded roll is traditionally credited to that kitchen, with the usual story that a baker or angry pastry cook folded unfinished dough into the pans. By 1877, when Buckeye Cookery was assembled in Minnesota and Ohio from contributions by named housewives, the roll had already travelled well beyond Boston and become a general term for a folded, butter-seamed dinner roll -- which is why it appears here credited to a Minneapolis contributor rather than to any hotel. The recipe's overnight sponge and its half-cup of liquid yeast are the older technology of the book: commercial compressed yeast was only beginning to reach American kitchens, and it was common for cooks to keep a yeast of their own going from hops, potato or a saved portion of the last batch.