Composer Jacques Offenbach was so taken with Parker House rolls that be burst into spontaneous song when he and his friends enjoyed them. That song was later used as a theme is his unfinished opera The Tales of Hoffman. Those must have been some rolls!
To my delight, I learned to make Parker House rolls at a recent Sur La Table (Costa Mesa) cooking class taught by talented chef Kristin Leonard. The rolls were a hit with everyone in the class and I’ve since made them at home. They are pretty wonderful. Light. Tender. Ever-so-buttery! Easy.
The Parker House Hotel where the rolls originated is an American institution, by the way. It was opened in the 1850s and is currently operated by the Omni chain. It has been in continuous operation as a hotel longer than any other hotel in America.
Emerson and Longfellow stayed (and ate) there. Charles Dickens reportedly recited A Christmas Carol to the literary Saturday Club that met at the Parker House. Ho Chi Minh claimed to have been a baker there during his brief sojourn in the United States. (I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the idea of Minh being a baker.) John Kennedy proposed to Jacqueline Bouvier at table 40 in the hotel’s dining room. (The hotel reports that romantics still book table 40 when they plan to propose. That’s a very nice romantic tradition, if you ask me.)
Gastronomically, the hotel has left its mark. The Boston Cream pie originated in its kitchens. Scrod, too. And then, there were the glorious Parker House Rolls that were first served there in the 1870s.
The story of the rolls origins strikes me as a bit dubious but it is fun, so I’ll retell it here. As the tale goes, a baker at the hotel had a crush on one of the hotel’s chambermaids. The chambermaid was accused to stealing a diamond necklace owned by a wealthy guest who ran hysterically through the hotel shouting her accusation against the chambermaid. Hearing his true love falsely accused, the baker, in a fit of pique, grabbed handfuls of prepared dinner rolls and threw them into the oven where the rolls rested haphazardly and many folded over on themselves. By the time things settled down, it was too late to make more rolls for the dinner hour and the baker decided to serve the misshapen rolls to the hotel’s guests. They were a hit. (The diamonds were found and the chambermaid was exonerated. No word about whether the rich lady apologized.)
Tomorrow, November 17, is Homemade Bread Day. Why not give these rolls a try. If you like them as much as I do, you will probably want to add them to your Thanksgiving menu. Who knows? Your guests might just break out in song.
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Oh, as a child I thought I was a princess when my mother and father took us to the Parker House! ….and I loved the story about the Parker House Rolls, and will make them as soon as I can! …delicious!