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Dessert

Swiss Roll

A rolled sponge cake filled with jam, dusted with castor sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Swiss Roll

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Sift the flour onto a paper.

  2. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Stir in half the flour.

  5. Add the milk.

  6. Add the baking powder.

  7. Add the remaining flour.

Bake and roll

  1. Spread the mixture onto a buttered paper on a baking sheet.

  2. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 10 minutes.

  3. Turn the cake quickly onto a board.

  4. Spread warm jam onto the cake.

  5. Roll the cake up.

  6. Dust with castor sugar while still hot.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 creamed mixture to give the sponge structure and lift.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once mixed in and set by the heat of the oven.
Butter
Creamed with the sugar to trap air and add richness and tender texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the sponge rise and stay light.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the sponge and helps it brown lightly and hold its airy structure.

The step that matters

Turn the cake quickly onto a board. The sponge is hot and soft; it must be turned out promptly, before it cools and stiffens, so it can be rolled without cracking.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, sugar, milk, butter. 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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