Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Cranberry Roly Poly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Sift the baking soda and cream of tartar into the flour.
Mix into a soft dough with sweet milk.
Roll out the dough thin and cut into oblong shapes.
Fill and roll
Spread the cranberries over the dough and sprinkle with sugar.
Dust with a little flour, then roll the dough over the cranberries.
Steam
Tie the rolled dough in a pudding cloth and steam for 1 hour.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 structure of the dough that holds the roll together during steaming.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar to produce gas that lightens the dough as it steams.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that reacts with the baking soda to help the dough rise and stay tender.
- Sweet milk
- Hydrates the flour to form a soft dough and adds moisture.
- Cranberries
- Provide tart fruit flavour and moisture that soaks into the surrounding dough.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cranberry filling to balance its tartness.
The step that matters
Tie the rolled dough in a pudding cloth and steam for 1 hour. The cloth must be snug so the roll keeps its shape, and the steam must stay steady. Baking soda and cream of tartar release gas as the dough heats, so a loose wrap or uneven steam can leave the roll heavy or misshapen.
“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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