Home › Sandwiches › Salad Rolls
Salad Rolls
Make a sponge with one cup of milk, one yeastcake dissolved in one-fourth a cup of milk, and about one cup and a half of flour; beat thoroughly, cover, and set to rise in a temperature of about 70° Fahr. When light add half a teaspoonful of salt, one-fourth a cup of melted butter, and flour enough to knead. Knead until elastic. Set to rise in a temperature of 70° Fahr. When doubled in bulk, cut down and shape into small balls.
Set to rise again, covered with a cloth and a dripping-pan. When light press the handle of a small wooden spoon deeply across the centre of each ball, brush with butter and press the edges together.
Set the rolls close together in a baking-pan, after brushing over with butter the points of contact.
A straightforward sponge-method dinner roll, folded Parker House style. The original assumes you know how to bake bread, so the two things it omits — oven temperature and yield — are the first things to settle.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. Rolls of this size bake at 400–425F for about 15–18 minutes, until the tops are deep gold and the bottoms sound hollow. Set them close together as directed and the sides stay soft where they touch.
- YeastcakeA compressed yeast cake is usually equated with about 0.6 oz, roughly one packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry or instant yeast, though cake sizes of the period varied. If using instant, no dissolving step is needed - stir it straight into the sponge flour.
- The sponge is the pointBeating a slack milk-and-flour batter and letting it go bubbly before adding salt and fat gives these rolls their flavour and fine crumb. Do not shortcut to a straight dough; the sponge should be domed and visibly foaming, 45–60 minutes at 70F.
- Salt and butter go in afterBoth slow yeast, which is why they are held back. Let the melted butter cool to lukewarm before adding it or it will kill surface yeast.
- "Flour enough to knead"Expect roughly 1 1/2 to 2 cups more, for about 3 to 3 1/2 cups total. Stop while the dough is still slightly tacky — it should clear the bowl but stick lightly to a finger.
- 70F is a real instructionThat is a cool room by modern standards and it is deliberate: a slow rise builds flavour. A 75–78F kitchen will work but shorten every rise, so judge by doubling in bulk rather than by clock.
- The spoon-handle creasePress hard enough to nearly cut through, butter the groove, then fold and pinch. A shallow crease springs open in the oven and the roll bakes as a plain bun instead of a cleft one.
- YieldRoughly 16 to 18 rolls at about 1 1/2 oz of dough each, filling a 9x13-inch pan. Serve warm the day they are baked; the soft-sided crumb stales fast.
The folded, buttered shape is the one associated with the Parker House roll, named for Boston's Parker House hotel; the usual account places its origin in that kitchen in the 1870s, but this is traditional rather than documented. The name 'salad rolls' points to their office: a small hot bread to accompany a salad course, a pairing suited to the luncheon fashion of the period, and the buttered fold gives two soft halves that pull apart cleanly at the table.