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Dessert

Berry Roll

A roll of baking-powder dough spread with berries, then steamed or baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Berry Roll

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. Combine 1 pint of flour, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1½ teaspoons of baking powder, and ½ teaspoon of salt. Sift together.

  2. Mix in 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 small cup of milk until well combined.

Assemble the roll

  1. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about ½ inch thick.

  2. Spread berries over the dough, leaving a 1-inch space at the ends.

  3. Roll up the dough and seal the ends.

  4. Place the roll in a buttered pan.

Steam or bake

  1. Steam over boiling water for 2 hours.

  2. For a baked version, mix 1 quart of flour with 2 teaspoons of butter, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.

  3. Add 1½ cups of milk and roll out to about ⅓ inch thick.

  4. Spread with blackberries and sprinkle with sugar.

  5. Roll up the dough, place in a greased pan, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the dough structure that holds the berries inside the roll.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping it rise and turn lighter.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the dough and adds richness.
Milk
Hydrates the flour so the dough comes together and stays moist.
Blackberries
Provide the fruit filling, adding moisture, tartness and flavour.

The step that matters

Sealing the ends of the roll. Unsealed ends let berry juice leak out during steaming or baking, leaving the filling dry or the dough soggy. Leaving a 1-inch border and pinching the ends firmly keeps the juices in as the dough cooks.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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