Posts Tagged ‘recipes’

THE CLASSIC SCORPION BOWL

Posted: December 19, 2025 in Cocktails, drink recipes, Drinks, mixology
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It had been a while since I made one of these, and my inventory of booze had changed a little bit. But the end result was still quite tasty.
First, the older recipe… And then the newer one below.
Most of the recipes for a Scorpion Bowl I found on-line don’t match the one that I’ve been using for many years. This recipe comes from a bartender (whose name I can’t remember–too many Scorpion Bowls, I guess) from a long-gone Chinese restaurant, China Garden, that was in Warwick, Rhode Island. A car dealership (Inskip) now stands in that spot. This is the best Scorpion Bowl I’ve ever had…and continue to have!
Make sure to use top shelf booze for this or you’ll be a “Suffering Bastard” the next morning! (A little Chinese restaurant drink humor…)

Look carefully, and you may see the flame coming out of the volcano! Hope I don’t need to tell you not to drink the 151 while it’s lit! And yes, it’s an old photo: Disaronno Originale hasn’t been called Amaretto di Saronno for a long time!

2 oz. light rum (I use Don Q silver)
2 oz. dark rum (I use Mount Gay)
1 oz. gin (I use Bombay Sapphire)
½ oz. brandy (I use E&J)
½ oz. Disaronno Originale
½ oz. Cointreau
6 oz. Pineapple juice
6 oz. Orange juice
½ oz. Bacardi 151 rum for the little cup in the volcano

In a blender half-full of ice, add all the alcohol, except the 151 rum. Add the pineapple juice and the orange juice.  (Use less if you like it stronger.) Give the drink a quick 1-second pulse in the blender, and pour it with all the ice into Scorpion Bowl or a very large glass or bowl. If you do have a Scorpion Bowl with the volcano in it, add the 151 rum to the bowl in the volcano. If not, you can mix the 151 into your drink.

 

Although all the proportions remain the same, my newer version had a few different brands than the old recipe.

My dark rum choice this time was a Rhode Island-based rum called Thomas Tew.

I went with the user-friendly Ford’s gin.

Grand Marnier is an excellent substitute for Cointreau.

And Gozio Amaretto is a real almond liqueur. Dissaronno strayed from their almond recipe decades ago, opting for cheaper stone fruits.

Proportions remain the same as the old recipe.

A long straw is good is you’re lazy.

Don’t drive!

THE PERFECT PRIME RIB ROAST

Posted: December 17, 2025 in beef, Carnivore!, Food, Recipes
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This is a great way to impress your guests at a holiday dinner or any big celebration.

Buying a large roast is not an inexpensive proposition, so I wanted to be as sure as possible that it was going to come out right. I got to work, researching recipes online and watching every You Tube video I could find. Every chef and home cook had their own ideas of spices and rubs, but the basic methodology was the same: start the roast at very high heat to form a delicious crust on the meat, then bring the oven temperature down and cook it more slowly to bring the roast to a perfect medium rare.

A big 10-lb. roast is going to cost around 150 bucks, so the first step is simple: don’t skimp by buying a cheap cut of meat. You will absolutely regret it. Get the best meat you can afford. The reward you’ll get when you slice it in front of the family, with all those “oohs and ahhhs” will totally be worth it!

A perfectly cooked, perfectly delicious roast!

The second step is simple but very important: make sure the roast is at room temperature before cooking, and make sure the oven is really pre-heated properly to the right temperature before you put the roast in it. A cold roast will cook unevenly, and you won’t get that beautiful pink all the way through the meat when you slice it. It’ll be raw on the inside and overcooked on the outside. Take the roast out of the fridge for a good 2 hours before cooking…and if it’s frozen, back-time the heck out of it so that it’s truly thawed!

You can already see that back-timing is going to play an important part in a perfect roast. So, for example, if you want to be serving at 7PM, you need a half-hour (at least) for the meat to rest after cooking…about 2 hours of cooking time…and about 2 hours of bringing the roast to room temperature….give or take. Oven temperature settings vary, and roasts can be uneven. You’ll have to keep an eye on this thing.

That brings us to monitoring the temperature. If you have a basic instant-read meat thermometer, you’ll need to jab the roast a couple of times during the cooking process to know what temperature you’re at. I don’t like this method, because it means you’re pulling the roast out of the oven, dropping the oven temperature each time, and jabbing the meat, which releases juices every time you pull the thermometer out. I suggest investing in a probe that goes in the roast from the very beginning, and stays in the roast through the whole cooking process, monitoring the temperature the entire time. When the roast hits the perfect temperature of about 115°, it beeps and lets you know it’s time to remove it from the oven. It’s practically foolproof.

The monitor I have is old school, as you can see, but it does the job. These days, you can get a wireless model that calls your phone when you’ve reached the ideal temperature.

My old-school monitoring system. I had it set for 120°, but actually pulled the roast out at 115.

My old monitor still works like a charm. I use it at Thanksgiving to get perfectly roasted turkeys on a Weber grill, and it works great here as well. The probe goes into the meat, and it’s connected to a transmitter. It also has a receiver that can be as far away as 100 feet from the roast, and it will signal you when the desired temperature has been reached. That means you don’t have to stare at the roast all the time. You don’t have to open the oven door all the time. You can actually enjoy a cocktail in the company of your guests or family while the meat cooks.

2 onions
3 carrots
3 stalks of celery

When it’s time to remove the roast from the fridge to bring it to room temperature, roughly chop the onions, carrots and celery and place them on the bottom of a roasting pan. Lay the roast on top.

The rub that you use on your roast is really a matter of what you like. Use the herbs and seasonings you love, and you can’t go wrong. Here’s my recipe for a 10 to 12-pound roast…

1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons Kosher salt
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
1 tablespoon granulated onion
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper

Combine these ingredients in a bowl. You want it to be like a paste or wet sand. If it’s too dry, add a little more olive oil. Dried oregano and thyme are usually fine the way they are, but fresh rosemary from the supermarket can be hard like pine needles. I either chop them really fine or I put them in a spice grinder. I have a small rosemary plant growing indoors by my window, so the needles are usually soft and wonderfully fragrant when I chop them up.

Seasoned and ready to cook!

Rub the seasonings all over the roast, making sure you get the bottom and the sides as well. Use it all up! You might think it’s too much salt, but remember: it’s a big hunka meat. Some of the seasonings will fall off. Be fearless!

To flavor the meat while cooking, I add a cup of red wine (optional) and 2 cups of beef or chicken stock in the pan with the vegetables. (In some cases, after the roast is cooked, you can use the juices at the bottom of the pan to make gravy. But give it a taste first. If you use a lot of salt on your roast, the juices could be too salty to use in your gravy. Gravy or not, a classic horseradish cream sauce on the side is a great choice. (The recipe is below.)

At least a half-hour before you want to start cooking, pre-heat the oven to 450°. You really want it hot to start. Roast the meat at 450° for 20 minutes, then turn down the heat to 325°.

This is where many recipes tell you to calculate how much more to cook based on the size of the roast, etc. If you’ve got a probe in the roast, you can see exactly how the temperature changes over time. If you decide that you’re going to “wing it,” you can go by the general math of 15 minutes per pound of meat, including that first 20 minutes. So, if you have a 10-pound roast, multiply that by 15 and you get 150 minutes. Subtract the first 20 minutes from that, and you need to cook the roast another 130 minutes at 325°. This is by no means a guarantee of success, but a very general guideline.

If you have a standard meat thermometer, you know that you can safely leave the roast in the oven at least an hour before taking the first temperature reading. Then play it by ear. (Like I said, you don’t want to be opening the oven door and poking the meat all the time.)

Although I had my probe set at 120°, I took the meat out at 115°, removing the roast from the pan, and placing it on a cutting board (or another clean pan.) Then I wrapped the roast with foil, and covered the foil with a clean bath towel, keeping all the heat in, letting the meat rest for AT LEAST 30 minutes. The meat inside continued to cook and reached a temperature of 130° before it started to slowly cool down. (If you leave the probe in while the meat is wrapped, you’ll actually see the temperature rise.)

After at least 30 minutes of resting, I unwrapped the roast and started slicing!

This is where you can pour off all the pan drippings and make a sauce if your spice mix wasn’t too salty or strong. As I mentioned, the classic horseradish cream sauce is great to serve with it…

1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
6 tablespoons prepared horseradish (more if you like it!)
Juice of 2 lemons
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Combine all the ingredients, mixing well. Keep this refrigerated until it’s ready to serve.

A previous family dinner with mac & cheese, salad, the amazing rib roast and lobsters from Sakonnet Lobster in Little Compton, RI!

FETTUCCINE ALFREDO: THE ORIGINAL MAC AND CHEESE

Posted: December 14, 2025 in Food, Italian, pasta, Recipes
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My first foray into serious cooking started when I bought “The Classic Italian Cookbook,” by  Marcella Hazan.

Like many great recipes, Fettuccine Alfredo is not complicated…but very few restaurants that offer it, actually get it right. Most of the Alfredo sauces I’ve had were watery, floury, and salty and had nothing in common with the real thing.

Funny, when I posted this recipe last year, someone wrote to me to say it was an “abomination.” I have no idea who they were, and if they had any knowledge or experience in the world of Italian cuisine, but since Marcella Hazan was a legend in this field and had written six major cookbooks on the subject, I still lean toward her recipe. Besides, it’s really good!

 

alfredo2

 

1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons butter
Fleur de Sel or sea salt
1 lb. Fettuccine, fresh or dried
2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground pepper
A very tiny grating of nutmeg

Put 2/3 cup of the cream and all the butter in a large saucepan that will later accommodate all the pasta. Simmer it over medium heat for less than a minute, until the butter and cream have thickened. Turn off the heat.

Drop the fettuccine in a big pot of boiling salted water. If the pasta is fresh, it will take just seconds. If it’s dry, it will take a few minutes. Cook the fettuccine firmer than usual, because it will finish cooking in the pan with the butter and cream. Drain the pasta, and transfer it to the pan containing the butter and cream.

Turn the heat under the pan on low, and toss the fettuccine, coating with the sauce. Add the rest of the cream, all the grated cheese, 1/2 teaspoon salt, the pepper and the nutmeg. Toss briefly until the sauce has thickened and the fettuccine is well coated. Taste and correct for salt.

Serve immediately!

PICKLED BEETS

Posted: December 10, 2025 in beets, Food, pickling, Recipes
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Growing up in a Lithuanian family, there was a small group of foods that I had to love to survive, since they constantly appeared on the dinner table: potatoes, cabbage, mushrooms, herring, and beets. Fortunately for me, I loved them all, despite my Mom’s desire to boil everything to death.

One of the many uses for beets, besides a cold summer soup and a hot winter soup, was pickling. Pickled beets are an excellent side dish for any hearty meat dish. (I love ’em with kielbasa!)  Store-bought pickled beets pack way too much sugar in every jar, so it was time to make my own.

A real time saver is a product called Love Beets, which you can find in any supermarket. If you use them, you can skip the roasting and messy peeling of the beets altogether.

This recipe makes one large Mason jar’s worth of pickled veggies.

 

beets

 

4 to 8 beets, scrubbed (your favorite variety)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
3 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
1 onion, sliced (or more, if you love ’em like I do!)
cauliflower pieces (optional)
fresh dill (optional)

 

 

Pre-heat the oven to 450. Wrap the beets in foil and roast them for about an hour, until tender. When they’re cool enough, carefully peel and quarter them. (If you’re using Love Beets, no cooking is necessary. Just open the package, and halve them, quarter them, or slice them…whatever is your preference.) 

In a medium saucepan, combine the vinegar, water, garlic, sugar, peppercorns and salt. Bring it to a boil and simmer over moderately high heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Let the pickling liquid cool to warm, about 15 minutes.

In a heat-proof glass jar or container, layer the beets, onions, and optional cauliflower. Pack them down a bit so there’s not a lot of air between them. Pour the pickling liquid in the jar, covering the veggies. Seal the jar tightly. Let it stand at room temp for 2 hours, then place it in the fridge overnight.

 

 

They stay fresh for a week, but they won’t last that long!

 

BALSAMIC BRAISED PORK CHOPS

Posted: December 7, 2025 in Uncategorized
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I was in the supermarket the other day, and a pack of pork chops called to me as I walked by the meat department. I hadn’t had pork chops in ages, and it was time to try something new with them.

The balsamic vinegar used in this recipe is not the crazy expensive stuff. It’s the bottle you probably already have in your kitchen cabinet that costs about nine bucks.

This recipe works with thick or thin pork chops, your choice.

The cool thing about this recipe is that you make it all in one pan, and on the stovetop.

4 or 5 bone-in pork chops
olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 large Spanish onion, diced
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups chicken broth (homemade is always best)
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
6 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Season the pork chops with the salt, pepper and thyme.

Add some olive oil to a large pan, and when it’s hot, sear the pork chops on both sides until they’re nice and brown.

Remove the pork chops from the pan and set them aside. Pour out the fat in the pan, add a touch of olive oil, and put it back on the heat. Add the onions, sautéing them for about 10 minutes until they’ve softened, and then add the garlic. Sauté a minute more.

Add the chicken broth, Dijon, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce. Stir to combine.

Return the pork chops back to the pan, nestling them down into the sauce. Add any of the juices that may have collected when you set the chops aside.

Bring the pan to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover the pan. Let it cook for 45 to 60 minutes. I like to flip the chops about halfway through the cooking process.

To serve, remove the chops from the pan, and smother them with the sauce! You may want to reduce or thicken the sauce a bit, but I like it just the way it is!

TANDOORI ROAST CHICKEN

Posted: November 30, 2025 in Uncategorized
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My family has made it pretty clear over the last half-dozen years or so that they’re tired of turkey on Thanksgiving. So when I saw a recipe in “Food and Wine” Magazine for a roasted turkey with Indian spices, I thought: “Why not try this with chicken?”

The recipe is from Food Network’s Maneet Chauhan, who is a regular on “Guy’s Grocery Games,” “Tournament of Champions,” etc. She’s got herself a restaurant empire in Nashville, of all places, and her knowledge of Indian food is pretty incredible. I knew I couldn’t go wrong using her recipe.

Indian cuisine is still pretty new to me, though I’ve made classic dishes like butter chicken. There are many ingredients in this dish that the average person won’t have in their cupboard, (ginger-garlic paste, tandoori masala, garam masala, kasoori methi, ghee) and maybe not even in the local supermarket. So you might have to do what I did, and look these things up on line and buy them ahead of time. But I found it all to be a great learning process.

You can marinate the bird overnight, or prepare it right before cooking. I choose to marinate overnight, because you have more time to really flavor the meat.

1 6-to-7-lb. chicken (I used a Perdue Oven Stuffer Roaster)
1/2 cup whole milk yogurt
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup ginger-garlic paste
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, plus 1 lemon sliced in quarters
2 1/2 tablespoons tandoori masala
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
1 1/2 teaspoons kasoori methi
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups water
1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, roughly chopped

Thaw the bird and remove the giblets. Save them for another time.

In a bowl, combine the yogurt, cilantro, cream cheese, ginger-garlic paste, lemon juice, tandoori masala, salt, garam masala, kasoori methi and black pepper.

Gently slide your fingers under the skin of the breast and thigh of the chicken to loosen it. Generously rub the yogurt marinade under the skin as far as you can reach without tearing it. Also spread some of the marinade inside the cavity of the bird. Take the lemon quarters and stuff them into the cavity of the bird as well. Tie the legs of the bird together to close the cavity.

Note: You don’t want the marinade on the outside of the skin until right before cooking! So save some of the marinade in the fridge for the next day.

Place the bird on a pan and in the fridge, uncovered, overnight.

The next day, pre-heat the oven to 425°. Remove the chicken from the fridge one hour before cooking, to bring it to room temperature. Rub the remaining marinade all over the bird in a thin layer.

To cook the bird, you want to place it in a roasting pan that elevates it off the bottom of the pan. In the bottom of the pan, pour in the water, and add the onion and carrot pieces. Place a rack on top of that, and put the chicken on top.

Bake the chicken at 425° for 35 minutes. Then drop the oven temperature to 350° and bake for 20 to 30 minutes more. Check the temperature of the bird by placing an instant-read thermometer in the inner thigh, being careful not to hit the bone. It should read 165°. Remove the bird from the roasting pan and place it on a plate. Cover it with foil to let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes.

While the chicken is resting, it’s time to make the gravy.

2 tablespoons ghee
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon tandoori masala
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups chicken stock
pan drippings from roasting the chicken

Melt the ghee in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the cumin seeds and tandoori masala. Cook, stirring often, being careful not to burn them. Whisk in the cornstarch, mixing well to avoid lumps. Then slowly add the chicken stock. Pour in the drippings from roasting the chicken. (You don’t need the onion and carrot–they’ve done their job.) Bring it to a simmer, then reduce the heat, and cook, stirring constantly, until the gravy is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. To serve, pour the gravy through a wire-mesh strainer into a gravy boat.

MY KILLER APPLE PIE RECIPE

Posted: November 28, 2025 in Uncategorized
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There are a million apple pie recipes online, and people argue whether they should go with an all-shortening or all-butter crust, or even a crust with a combination of the two. I used to be a half-butter, half-shortening guy, myself. But over they years, I’ve become an all-butter guy, because quite frankly, shortening is nasty. And butter…is butter!

I choose to bake the pie the day before serving it. And I prepare the dough the day before that. That way, it has time to rest in the fridge overnight. When you’re ready to bake, remove the dough from the fridge and work with it as cold as you can. If you thaw it too much, you’ll lose the magic of the little butter chunks scattered through the dough.

For the dough…

2 1/2 cups all-purpose organic flour (I like King Arthur)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup butter, chilled and diced into cubes
1/2 cup very cold ice water

You can mix the dough ingredients by hand in a bowl, but I prefer a food processor.

Combine the flour, salt and sugar in the food processor and give it a quick pulse to mix. Drop the cubes of butter into the flour mixture, and then pulse the processor until the dough mixture resembles coarse crumbs, and the butter is reduced to pea-sized bits.

Add 1/4 cup of the water, and run the processor. Keep adding a little water at a time, and as soon as the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the processor bowl, stop! You don’t want to overwork the dough.

Remove the dough to a floured surface and knead it into a ball. Cut the ball in half, and roll each half into a thick, round pancake about an inch thick. wrap these tightly with plastic wrap and place them in the fridge until you’re ready to bake.

For the pie filling…

3 lbs. Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced into 1/4″ thick slices
1/2 cup butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose organic flour
1/3 cup apple cider
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 425.

Remove the dough from the fridge. While it’s warming up, prepare the apples.

Peel and slice the apples into 1/4″ wide pieces. (I like to cut some a little thinner and some a little thicker, so I get different textures of apple when the pie has baked.) Place them in a large bowl.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, and add the flour. Whisk well to make a roux. Add the juice, both sugars, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Bring it to a low boil, stirring constantly, then remove from the heat.

Pour the contents of the saucepan into the large bowl with the apples, saving about 1/4 cup butter-sugar sauce for later. Mix the sauce with the apples really well, making sure they’re completely coated.

Unwrap one of the dough pieces. On a lightly floured surface, roll it out large enough to fit the bottom and sides of a 9″ pie pan. Let it hang about a 1/2″ over the top edge of the pan, for crimping later.

Carefully transfer the apple mixture into the pie pan, making sure you get every little bit of that butter-sugar sauce in there. The apples will form a large mound. don’t worry…they’ll cook down.

Unwrap the other piece of dough and roll it out so that it fits over the top of the mound of apples. Tuck the excess edges of the upper crust under the overlapping bottom crust, pinching the two halves together, making as tight a seal around the pie as you can. (Don’t cut any of that crust away…use it! It’s delicious!) Cut several slots in the top of the crust to let steam out while the pie cooks.

Take that 1/4 cup of reserved butter-sugar sauce, add a little water to it, and brush it all over the top of the crust, brushing evenly over the entire crust.

Place the pie on a baking sheet and bake it at 425 for about 15 minutes. Then drop the oven temperature to 350 and bake for another 50 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and crisp. If it looks like the edges of your pie are browning too quickly, tent around the edges loosely with foil. Remember, ovens vary!

Let the pie cool completely. I prefer to let it cool overnight, to be served the next day. We like to serve it with good-quality vanilla ice cream.

Of course, apple pie and coffee is an excellent breakfast the next morning!

 

CLASSIC CLAM DIP

Posted: November 26, 2025 in Food, Recipes, Rhode Island, seafood
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A few years ago, we were invited to a very cool retro summer party: cocktails and appetizers from the 60’s, and everyone contributed to the music by bringing in their favorite songs on vinyl.

We were also asked to contribute to the apps, so I brought waffle chips with clam dip.

 

image

2 8-oz. packages cream cheese, softened
3 6-oz. cans of chopped clams, drained, liquid reserved from one can
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Combine all the ingredients, except the clam liquid, in a bowl and mix them well with a fork.

Add 1 tablespoon of the clam liquid and mix well. Keep adding the clam liquid until the dip reaches a consistency you like.

Serve with the potato chips.

 

image

HONEY GLAZED CHICKEN WINGS

Posted: November 23, 2025 in chicken, Recipes, wings
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I can’t get enough of chicken, and I cook it at least a couple of times a week. So I have to keep coming up with new flavors to challenge my taste buds as well as myself.

This recipe works with wings, but any other chicken parts you like will work.

Here’s a hint with fresh ginger: buy a nice looking root and keep it wrapped well and in the freezer. When you need some, simply grate the frozen root, skin and all, and then place it back in the freezer until next time. It will last a lot longer than in the fridge.

 

honey glazed chicken

 

 

 

4 lbs. chicken wings
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper sauce (I like Frank’s Red Hot)
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1/4 cup onion, minced
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 cup chicken stock, preferably homemade

 

Thaw chicken wings and place in a Ziploc bag.

In a separate bowl, whisk together all the other ingredients, except chicken stock, to make a marinade. Pour this marinade into the Ziploc with the chicken and seal, squeezing the air out of the bag. Squish the bag around so that the marinade thoroughly covers all the chicken wings. Place the bag in the fridge to marinate for at least 4 hours, but overnight is even better. Place the bag in a bowl to prevent accidental leakage in your fridge.

Pre-heat the oven to 325.

Carefully pour the marinade out of the Ziploc bag into a saucepan, adding the chicken stock, and reduce until it becomes a thick, gooey glaze. Be careful not to burn the sugars in the honey. Honey can also foam up and overflow if you’re not watching it.

Remove the chicken pieces from the bag and place them on a baking sheet covered with non-stick aluminum foil. Bake for about 30 minutes.

The reduced marinade glaze should be ready right around the time the chicken has cooked for 30 minutes or so. Brush the glaze on to the chicken, and place back in the oven to cook 15 more minutes.

 

CLASSIC PARKER HOUSE ROLLS

Posted: November 21, 2025 in Uncategorized
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What’s a Thanksgiving dinner without Parker House rolls? Parker House rolls are one of my all-time favorite treats. They’re so light and delicious because milk and melted butter are used to make the dough. I’d make and eat them every weekend if it wasn’t for the fact that I’d gain a ton of weight in the process! So…I save them for special occasions. There really is a Parker House. It’s a hotel in Boston where the rolls originated in the 1870’s. Legend has it that a disgruntled hotel baker threw a batch of unfinished rolls in the oven, and when they came out, they had a folded pocketbook shape that made them light on the inside, and crisp and buttery on the outside. A legend was born. There are hundreds of Parker House Roll recipes out there, but this is the one I swear by. It’s a great excuse to get out my old Kitchenaid standing mixer.
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus softened butter for brushing
1 tablespoon active dry yeast 1/4 cup lukewarm water (100 to 110 degrees) 1/4 cup sugar 1 cup whole milk, warmed 2 large eggs, at room temperature 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting 2 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt (I use Diamond Crystal)
Brush a large bowl with butter. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, combine the yeast with the water and a pinch of sugar. Let it stand until it gets foamy, about 10 minutes. This gets the yeast happy. Add the milk, melted butter, eggs and remaining sugar and mix until it’s all combined. Now switch to the dough hook and add the flour and salt. Knead at low speed until a smooth ball forms, about 2 minutes. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead it gently into a ball. Then place the ball in the buttered bowl, covering it with plastic wrap, and placing the bowl in a warm place. Let the dough double in volume. It’ll take about 1 1/2 hours. Pre-heat the oven to 350. Grease a 9-by-13 baking dish with more butter. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board again, punching out the air bubbles, and forming it into a ball again. Cut the ball in half, then each half into 8 pieces. You can either leave the pieces in their wedge shape, placing them in the baking dish top side up. Or you can roll the wedges into balls, placing them into the baking dish, spacing them out evenly. Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and let the dough rise again for about 30 minutes. By then, your oven will be nice and warm. Bake the rolls for 20 to 25minutes, until they’re a beautiful golden color. Serve them warm or at room temperature. If you bake the rolls earlier in the day, you can cover them in plastic wrap, and the re-heat gently before serving.
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