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Dessert

Roly Poly

A rolled pastry filled with chopped apples and lemon, boiled and served with wine sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roly Poly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the crust

  1. Make a paste crust by mixing flour, butter, and water until smooth.

  2. Roll the crust out rather thin.

Fill and roll

  1. Spread chopped apples and lemon peel over the crust.

  2. Starting from one side, roll the crust up tightly.

  3. Tie the rolled crust in a pudding cloth.

Boil and serve

  1. Boil in water for two hours.

  2. Serve with wine sauce.

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 + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

All-purpose flour
Forms the dough structure that holds the filling while the roll cooks.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the crust tender and rich.
Apples
Provide the main fruit filling, adding moisture and tart flavor as they soften.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweetness of the apples.

The step that matters

Rolling the crust tightly. A loose roll can let filling escape or leave gaps in the dough. Tight, even rolling keeps the filling inside and the layers even during boiling.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, lemon):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, lemon. 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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