Talk:Swiss roll

Origin of the name

someone ought to hit the Oxford English Dictionary.  I'm going to boldly guess ahead of time why it might have gotten the name.  1. It's a good soldier food.  Because the sugar is in there, soldiers get energy, and because sponge cake is all around it, their hands are protected and the jam doesn't attract bugs.  2. The sleeping bag used by the Swiss may have been the first or most famous to be rolled up and stored on the back.  Either one would be a good folk etymology.  The real one...I await someone with access to an OED.  Geogre 14:47, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

I have access to the OED through my University. (Hadn't actually thought of looking it up.) It doesn't have a separate entry, but "Swiss roll" was contained within the entry for the adjective "Swiss":

Swiss roll, a ‘sweet’ consisting of sponge cake rolled up with a layer of jam.

Later, when giving appearances of the word according to date, they have:

1897 Econ. Confect. Bk. 13 Swiss Roll. Ingredients. 1/2 lb. of Flour. 1/2 lb. of Castor Sugar. 9 eggs. A pinch of Volatile Salts. 6 drops Essence of Lemon.

Rather disappointing. I tried Britannica (also through my University password), and it was also of little use. It directed me to the article on cake, which mentioned swiss roll very briefly, saying that a higher temperature is used for thin products such as swiss roll.

I like the sleeping bag guess. The guess about keeping hands protected only works if it's just jam inside. If you sink your front teach into a swiss roll filled with cream, or jam and cream, the filling just splodges everywhere! AnnH ♫ 15:19, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm not fond of the soldier folk etymology, either, as it really needs a modern army. Infamously, M&M's were developed to allow soldiers to get sugar without getting their trigger fingers sticky (more important for keeping grit out of the action of bolt rifles). Thus, that's really a concern when your rifle has lots of sliding parts, which wouldn't have been the case in 1897. As usual with OED, the print reference assumes everyone already knows what the word means, which suggests that there are several print usages prior that no one has found yet. However, the camp roll does look like a Swiss roll, and there is all that lore about the Swiss army being the best in the eyes of Fr., Engl., It., and Amer. folks (cf. Swiss Army knife). Geogre 16:01, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

According to this website:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070818041821AAAt8qb

the term "Swiss roll" originated in England, and refers to the British technique of swissing, a technique used to make the cake softer. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 20:12, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

When did it lose its cap?

It was always a Swiss roll in my days. When did it become swiss roll? -- Smjg 13:14, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

What's the easiest way to make a Swiss roll?

...push him down a mountain. Oh yes folks, I'm here all night. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Traveller palm (talk • contribs) 19:11, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Origin

The intro states it is of central european origin, but the body of the article ignores central europe completely and seems to say it came from Hong Kong via. the U.K. --75.205.224.96 (talk) 14:38, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Japanese: Matchlock?

I did not find anything about Matchlock being japanese for swiss roll. Maybe someone confused 抹茶ロールケーキ (Matcha Roll Cake, green tea-flavored swiss role) with マッチロック (Matchlock)? Irrogalp (talk) 11:52, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

Origin

This sentence makes no sense:

The origins of the term "Swiss" roll are unclear and the cake originated in Central Europe and not Switzerland.

since Switzerland is in Central Europe. Harry the Dog WOOF 19:41, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

OK - I have now changed the word "and" to "but" - does that satisfy you? ACEOREVIVED (talk) 17:00, 2 November 2011 (UTC)

Some one appears to have got rid of the word "but" - I have put it back now. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 00:27, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

This contradicts the List of Cakes article

The beginning of this article says that the cake originated in Central Europe, probably in Austria or Hungary, but the article List of cakes says that the cake originated in the United Kingdom. Which is correct? ACEOREVIVED (talk) 16:56, 2 November 2011 (UTC)

Doing a Google search, I found this website:

http://www.localhistories.org/biscuits.html

which says that the Swiss roll originated in the nineteenth century, the same as Battenberg. However, the website does not tell us where it originated. Unfortunately, if one types "Swiss roll" and some related terms (such as "history" or "origin of") into Google, one only gets a lot of websites which were obviously copied from the Wikipedia article! ACEOREVIVED (talk) 09:39, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

OK, I now have found this website:

http://www.null-hypothesis.co.uk/science//item/top_ten_british_swiss_roll

which says that the Swiss roll has nothing to do with Switzerland. It also makes the interesting observation that it only appears to be in Britain where these cakes are known as "Swiss rolls", noting names for them in other languages, and noting how in America, they are known as "Jelly Rolls". So, perhaps the article List of cakes was not referring to the origin of the cake per se, but merely to the origin of the name of the cake. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 11:15, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

Chocolate Swiss roll is NOT chocolate log

I have removed the nonsense that in Britain, the chocolate Swiss roll is known as chocolate log. The term "chocolate Swiss roll" in Britain is merely used to denote a brown sponge with chocolate flavouring which will NOT - as in the case of chocolate log - be covered with chocolate on the outside. Any one who wants evidence of this need only look in the cake section of a supermarket and look at where Swiss rolls are on sale. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 20:26, 2 November 2011 (UTC)

Nineteenth Century cake

My source for the cake originating from the nineteenth century is this website:

http://www.localhistories.org/biscuits.html

which I have now put at the end of the article in the "References" section.

Why the introduction needs changing

The blurb at the top of this article says this article is about the "pastry". It should say "cake" - as these cakes do not have pastry in them. ACEOREVIVED (talk) 21:46, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

OK - I have changed it myself now! ACEOREVIVED (talk) 00:24, 14 March 2012 (UTC)