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Dessert

Pecan Roll

A confection made by cooking sugar and cream, forming a fondant, rolling it, and coating with a glucose mixture and pecan pieces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

Pecan Roll

Ingredients

Directions

Make the centers

  1. In a large pot, combine cane sugar and cream of tartar with 2 quarts of cream and 1 quart of milk.

  2. Cook the mixture to 244°F (118°C) on a thermometer.

  3. Remove from heat, add Nougat cream, and stir for ¼ minute. Return to heat briefly to warm the bottom while stirring continuously.

  4. Pour the mixture onto a damp cream slab and let it sit for 5 minutes.

  5. Cream it like fondant until it sets, then roll into 5‑inch long and 1½‑inch thick rolls.

  6. Let the rolls stand for 1 hour to set.

Make and apply the coating

  1. In another pot, mix glucose, sugar, 2 quarts of cream, and 1 quart of condensed milk.

  2. Cook this mixture to 250°F (121°C).

  3. Flavor the coating with Mapleisco and color with caramel color.

  4. Using two forks, dip the rolls quickly into the coating, use the forks to lift the rolls, and allow excess coating to drip off before rolling in pecan meats to coat.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Sugar + condensed milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + condensed milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together416 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Milk + meattop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,703 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cane sugar
Provides the main sweet structure of the centers as it cooks and crystallizes.
Nougat cream
Adds softness and a smoother, chewier texture to the centers.
Glucose
Helps keep the coating smooth and glossy by limiting sugar crystallization.
Condensed milk
Adds milk solids for creamy flavor and a richer, softer coating.

The step that matters

Cream the centers until they set. Cooking to the stated temperature and then creaming the mass while it cools forms fine sugar crystals that give a smooth, firm texture. Rolling too early or too late changes how the centers set.

“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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