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Dessert

Apple Roll

A rolled pastry filled with apples, syrup, and sultanas, boiled until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,790 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Apple Roll

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pastry

  1. Mix the flour, suet, salt, and baking powder in a bowl.

  2. Add enough water to form a stiff paste.

  3. Roll the paste out to about ½ inch thickness.

Make the filling

  1. Combine the apples, syrup, lemon juice and rind, sultanas, and bread crumbs in another bowl.

  2. Spread the apple mixture over the rolled-out paste.

Roll and cook

  1. Roll it up tightly, pinching the ends to seal.

  2. Wrap the roll in a cloth and tie it securely.

  3. Place the wrapped roll in boiling water and cook for 1 to 2 hours.

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. Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Flour + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,540 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lemon + breadtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,445 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the suet paste as it is mixed with water.
Shredded suet
Adds fat to the paste, giving it a tender, rich texture as it cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas that helps the paste rise and lighten as it cooks.
Apples
Provide the main fruit filling, adding moisture and tartness to the roll.
Lyle's golden syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps bind the filling together.

The step that matters

Rolling and sealing the roll. If the paste is not sealed tightly at the ends and seam, the filling can leak out and the roll can become waterlogged during boiling. Keeping the cloth wrap snug and secure helps the roll hold its shape as it cooks.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, apple, syrup, bread):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, apple, syrup, bread. 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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