Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Roll Jelly Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Beat the yolks of three eggs with one cup of sugar and two tablespoons of sweet milk.
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and then combine with the yolk mixture.
Sift in one heaping teaspoon of baking powder and one cup of flour, mixing thoroughly.
Flavor the batter as desired and pour it into a long dripping pan.
Bake and roll
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.
Turn the cake out onto a board, spread with jelly, and roll it up while warm.
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.
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to a stiff froth, they trap air that lifts the batter as it bakes.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and moisture, and help bind the batter.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the sponge together when rolled.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and stay light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender crumb.
The step that matters
Roll the cake while warm. Warm sponge is flexible, so it can be rolled without cracking. Once it cools, the crumb stiffens and is more likely to split.
“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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