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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) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓

Swiss Roll

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the tin

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Grease a flat baking tin with clarified butter.

  3. Line the tin with a piece of paper larger than the tin, butter the paper.

Make and bake the sponge

  1. Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar, then beat in the eggs.

  2. Sift the flour and baking powder together, then gently stir into the mixture.

  3. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and spread evenly.

  4. Bake for about 8 minutes until firm on top.

Roll and finish

  1. While baking, warm the jam.

  2. Prepare a sheet of paper on a pastry board, sprinkle with castor sugar.

  3. Once baked, turn the cake upside down onto the prepared paper.

  4. Remove the lining paper and trim a thin strip from each side.

  5. Spread the warm jam quickly over the cake and roll it 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 creamed mixture to build the airy structure of the sponge.
Sugar
Sweetens the sponge and, creamed with butter, helps trap air for a light texture.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the sponge as it is creamed with the sugar.
Flour
Forms the set framework of the sponge that holds the rolled shape.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the sponge rises and stays light.
Jam
Adds sweetness and moisture to the filling and helps the rolled layers stick together.

The step that matters

Turning and rolling the warm sponge. Once baked, the cake must be turned onto sugared paper and rolled while still warm and pliable. As it cools, the sponge stiffens and tends to crack when rolled, so the jam should be spread quickly.

“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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