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Dessert

Jelly Roll

A rolled cake made from a batter of eggs, sugar, butter, milk, flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar, filled with jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Jelly Roll

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Combine eggs, sugar, melted butter, salt, milk or water, and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl.

  3. Beat the mixture well.

  4. Sift flour and baking soda together twice.

  5. Add the sifted flour and baking soda to the egg mixture.

  6. Stir until smooth.

  7. Pour the batter into a greased dripping pan.

Bake and roll

  1. Bake until golden.

  2. Remove the cake from the oven.

  3. Turn the cake onto a sheet of paper sprinkled with powdered sugar.

  4. Spread the jelly evenly over the cake.

  5. Roll the cake up tightly using the paper to help shape it.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Eggs
Whisked into the batter, they provide structure and lift for a light, rollable sponge.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps give it a tender crumb.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure that holds the sponge together while it rolls.
Cream of tartar
Stabilises the beaten egg mixture and helps it keep its airy texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to add lift and help the cake rise.
Jelly
Adds moisture and sweet fruit flavour inside the rolled cake.

The step that matters

Rolling the cake while warm. A sponge that is rolled too late cracks and tears, because it stiffens as it cools. Rolling it promptly while still warm, with the paper supporting it, lets the crumb bend without breaking.

“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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