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Dessert

Swiss Roll

A rolled sponge cake filled with jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Swiss Roll

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Whisk the eggs and sugar together for 10 minutes until thick.

  2. Add the milk and essence.

  3. Mix in the flour and baking powder lightly.

  4. Prepare a tin lined with greased paper.

  5. Pour in the mixture.

Bake and roll

  1. Bake in a very hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for 5 minutes.

  2. Turn the sponge out onto sugared paper.

  3. Cut off the edges.

  4. Spread with hot jam.

  5. Roll up the sponge.

  6. Dust sugar on top.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Whisked to trap air, giving the sponge its light, airy structure.
Flour
Forms the sponge's set structure once heated in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the sponge rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the sponge and helps stabilise the whisked egg foam.
Jam
Adds sweetness and fruit flavour under the rolled sponge.

The step that matters

Roll up the sponge while it is still warm. Rolling a hot sponge is easier because it is more flexible; once cooled it can crack. Rolling the sponge in sugared paper helps prevent it sticking.

“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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