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 ↓
Jam Roley-poley
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Rub the lard and butter into the flour with a little salt.
Add cold milk to make a soft paste.
Roll and fill
Roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thick and trim into an oblong sheet.
Spread the jam generously, leaving a margin at each end.
Roll up the dough tightly with the jam inside and pinch the ends closed.
Boil and serve
Baste the roll in a floured bag, ensuring it is not too tight to allow for swelling.
Boil in hot water for 1.5 hours, keeping the water at a constant boil.
Dip the cloth in cold water before turning the roley-poley out.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + berrytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together78 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + berrytop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together51 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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's structure, which holds the roll together during boiling.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavour in the dough.
- Lard
- Adds fat that keeps the dough short and tender rather than tough.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour so it forms a soft, workable dough.
- Jam
- Supplies sweetness, fruit flavour and moisture that soaks into the dough as it cooks.
The step that matters
Wrapping the roll in the floured bag. The cloth must be loose enough for the dough to swell as it cooks. If it is tight, the roll can burst or become dense and misshapen. Keeping the water at a constant boil also matters, because a drop in temperature slows cooking and can leave the dough heavy.
Swap the berry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Berrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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