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Parker House Rolls
Shape the roll dough into biscuits, let rise again, then roll 1-inch in thickness, and, with the handle of a case knife dipped in flour, crease through the middle of each biscuit, or roll with rolling pin to oblong shape. Brush of each with melted fat, fold and press together. Cover, let rise and bake in a hot oven 12 to 15 minutes.
Cream soup, purée, bisque or chowder are heavy soups and contain sufficient nourishment to be the chief articles of food at a meal. Cream nourishment to be the chief articles of food at a meal. Cream soups are made with thickened milk, combined with meat stock, fish stock or vegetable stock and pulp.
Clear soups, such as bouillon and consommé are used as appetizers at the beginning of a heavy meal.
To clarify soup, use ¼ egg-white to each quart of cold stock. Beat egg slightly, and add to stock. Heat gradually till near the boiling point, stirring all the time. Cook gently for 15 minutes. Remove to back of range and add 1/4 cup cold water. Let stand a few minutes, then strain through cheesecloth placed over strainer. Heat and add any further seasoning desired.
Water in which vegetables are cooked should be saved. Any left-over vegetables heated in this stock and put through a sieve can be made into a vegetable soup by following the directions given for Cream of Potato Soup. ALL RECIPES IN THIS BOOK CALL FOR FLAT OF LEVEL MEASUREMENTS
This entry assumes you already have the book's basic roll dough risen and ready; it is a shaping method rather than a full formula. Note also that the page has picked up several stray paragraphs of soup instruction from the neighbouring column, which have nothing to do with the rolls.
- Hot ovenIn books of this period a "hot oven" is usually taken as somewhere around 400 to 450F. Twelve to fifteen minutes suits rolls of this size; pull them when the tops are deep gold.
- The dough it assumesThe entry refers to "the roll dough," so a formula for it presumably appears elsewhere in the book; this page does not give it. Any enriched white roll dough will serve.
- Case knifeA case knife is a plain table knife. The floured handle is pressed down to crease the biscuit, which the text says to do through the middle; the crease is what lets the roll fold and gives it its lip.
- The hingeBrush the crease and the surface generously with melted butter before folding. Unbuttered dough knits back together in the oven and you lose the split, hinged shape entirely.
- Rolling thicknessThe text as printed says 1 inch, which is thick for a folded roll; a thinner sheet, around 1/4 to 1/2 inch, is closer to the usual result, since folding doubles it and the rolls rise again. The passage runs two shaping methods together.
- Final riseCover with a cloth and let the shaped rolls rise until puffy but not doubled, about 30 to 45 minutes at room temperature. Overproofed rolls flatten and the fold unfurls.
- Melted fatIn household books of this sort "fat" often meant lard, drippings or a shortening compound. Butter gives the flavour associated with the roll today; brush again as they come out of the oven.
- YieldDepends entirely on the batch of roll dough used, which this page does not specify. They are best within a few hours of baking and reheat well wrapped in foil.
The roll takes its name from the Parker House hotel in Boston, which opened in 1855, and the folded, buttered dinner roll is generally traced to the hotel's kitchen sometime in the following decades; the origin story usually told, that a baker flung unfinished dough into the oven in a temper, is folklore rather than documented fact. By the time this book was printed the shape had long since escaped the hotel and become a standard American household form, which is why the entry gives no dough recipe at all, only the folding. The soup matter on clear soups, clarifying stock with egg white and saving vegetable water plainly belongs to another part of the book and has run into this entry, most likely a consequence of tight double-column setting or of how the page was reproduced.