Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Jelly 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake the batter
In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and beaten eggs in the order given. Stir the mixture well.
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake until done.
Roll and finish
Once baked, place the cake on brown paper sprinkled with pulverized sugar.
Spread jelly over the cake and roll it quickly while still warm.
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.
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Eggs
- Provide structure and richness, setting the sponge as they cook and trap air.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the cake crumb as its proteins set during baking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps keep it tender and moist.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the batter rises and becomes light.
- Jelly
- Adds sweetness, moisture and a fruity flavor to the filling.
The step that matters
Rolling the cake while warm. A warm sponge is flexible, so it can be rolled without cracking. Once it cools, the cake stiffens and tends to crack along the roll, so the roll must be made quickly.
“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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