Why it works: Sugar and flour 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 ↓
Railroad Cake
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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix sugar, flour, and baking powder.
In another bowl, beat the eggs and then combine with the dry ingredients.
Spread the batter very thin on a large pan.
Bake and roll
Bake until done, then turn out onto a towel.
Spread with jelly and roll tightly.
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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Sugar + flourtop 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 moisture, helping the thin batter set into a flexible sheet.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake together once baked.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown lightly in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when heated, lightening the batter as it bakes.
- Jelly
- Adds sweetness and moisture to the filling inside the rolled cake.
The step that matters
Rolling the cake while warm. The sponge must be turned out and rolled while still warm and pliable. Once it cools, it becomes brittle and is likely to crack when rolled around the jelly.
“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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