Name: Lemon Roll
Ingredients: 2 lemons, grated (rind and all); 2 cups white sugar; Rich pie crust (made with a little baking powder); Butter (for topping); Golden sauce (for serving)

Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lemon Roll

Ingredients

2 lemons, grated (rind and all)
2 cups white sugar
Rich pie crust (made with a little baking powder)
Butter (for topping)
Golden sauce (for serving)

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Grate the lemons, including the rind, and mix the grated lemons with the sugar.
Prepare a rich pie crust using a little baking powder and roll it out.
Spread the lemon and sugar mixture over the crust.

Assemble and bake

Roll up the crust and seal the edges.
Place the roll in a baking dish and dot with butter on top.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

Serve

Serve with golden sauce.

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.

Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Lemons: Provide the main flavour and aroma, with the rind adding fragrant oils to the filling.
White sugar: Sweetens the filling and draws juice from the lemons to form a syrupy layer.
Pie crust: Forms the rolled pastry that encloses the filling and bakes to a crisp, golden shell.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the top brown as it bakes.