Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Jelly Roll
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat the eggs until well combined.
Add the powdered sugar and flour, and stir until smooth.
Mix in the cream of tartar and baking soda dissolved in water.
Pour the batter into two pie pans and spread evenly.
Bake and roll
Bake until golden and springy to the touch.
Once baked, turn the cake onto a towel, bottom side up.
Spread jelly evenly over the cake, roll it up quickly, and wrap it in the towel.
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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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
- Beaten eggs trap air, giving the cake its light, sponge-like structure.
- All-purpose flour
- Flour provides the starch and protein that set the cake's structure as it bakes.
- Powdered sugar
- Sugar adds sweetness and helps keep the cake tender and moist.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, stabilizing the whipped egg foam and keeping the cake tender.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas, helping the cake rise.
The step that matters
Rolling the warm cake. The cake must be rolled quickly while still warm and pliable. As it cools, the starches and proteins set and it becomes brittle, so it cracks when rolled.
“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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