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Dessert

Jelly Roll

A rolled cake made from eggs, sugar, milk, flour, baking powder, salt, butter, and jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs until light.

  2. Gradually add the sugar and milk.

  3. Mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  4. Stir in the melted butter.

Bake

  1. Line the bottom of a baking pan with paper.

  2. Butter the sides of the pan.

  3. Pour the mixture into the pan.

  4. Spread the batter evenly.

  5. Bake for 12 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

Roll and fill

  1. Turn out the cake onto a clean surface.

  2. Remove the paper.

  3. Spread jelly over the cake.

  4. Roll the cake up.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Eggs
Beaten until light, they trap air that gives the sponge its structure and lift.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten that set the batter into a flexible, sliceable cake.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown and stay tender.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richer flavour and a softer, more tender crumb.

The step that matters

Turn out and roll the cake while warm. Rolling a freshly baked sponge while it is still warm and pliable keeps it from cracking. Once it cools, the cake stiffens and tears easily, so the roll must be shaped promptly after it is removed from the pan.

“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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