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Dessert

Swiss Roll

A rolled sponge cake filled with jam and dusted with crushed sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Swiss 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. Combine 4 eggs with ¾ cup fine sugar in a basin.

  2. Beat over steam until stiff.

  3. Gently stir in ¾ cup sifted flour.

Bake and roll

  1. Pour the mixture into a flat tin lined with greased paper and spread it out.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 15 minutes until firm to the touch.

  3. Turn the cake out onto a paper sprinkled with crushed sugar.

  4. Wet the paper.

  5. Remove the cake.

  6. Spread jam over the cake and roll it up.

  7. Cut off the ends and sprinkle sugar on top.

  8. Serve cold.

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Whipped to a stiff foam, they give the sponge its structure and lift.
Fine sugar
Sweetens the sponge and helps stabilise the whipped eggs.
Sifted flour
Provides the set structure that holds the rolled sponge together.
Jam
Adds sweetness and moisture to the filling inside the rolled sponge.

The step that matters

Beat over steam until stiff. Whipping eggs and sugar until stiff traps air that leavens the sponge. Under-beating gives a dense roll that cracks when rolled, and the flour must be folded in gently so that air is not lost.

“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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