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Dessert

Swiss Roll

A rolled sponge cake made with eggs, flour, sugar, lemon rind, baking powder, and jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and sugar 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. In a bowl over hot water, whisk the eggs and sugar for 20 minutes until warm.

  2. Remove from heat, mix baking powder with flour, and sift into the egg mixture.

  3. Gently stir in the lemon rind.

Bake and roll

  1. Line a large flat baking tray with buttered paper and dust with castor sugar.

  2. Pour the mixture into the tray, spreading it to about ⅓ inch deep.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 8 to 10 minutes.

  4. Roll the cake quickly after removing it from the oven.

  5. Warm the jam and spread it over the top of the cake.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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
Whisked with sugar to trap air, giving the sponge its light, airy structure.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten that set the sponge's structure once baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the sponge rise and stay tender.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the sponge and helps stabilise the whisked egg foam.
Jam
Adds sweetness and moisture to the filling spread over the cake.

The step that matters

Roll the cake quickly after removing it from the oven. Baked sponge becomes stiff as it cools, so it cracks if rolled late. Rolling while still warm and pliable keeps the roll intact.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Figfits about as well

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