Why it works: Sugar and flour 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
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Beat the eggs and sugar until creamy.
Gradually add the flour and mix lightly.
Pour the mixture into a baking tin lined with greased paper.
Bake and roll
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 minutes.
Quickly turn it out onto a piece of paper sprinkled with sugar.
Spread the jam over the cake and roll it up.
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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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 + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Whipped with sugar, they trap air that lifts the sponge as it bakes.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the sponge and helps stabilise the beaten egg foam.
- Flour
- Gives the sponge its structure once the batter sets in the oven.
- Jam
- Adds sweetness, flavour and moisture to the filling inside the rolled sponge.
The step that matters
Turn the cake out quickly. A freshly baked sponge is warm and flexible. As it cools, the starch and proteins firm up and it becomes brittle, so it cracks when rolled if left too long.
“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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