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Dessert

Sultana Roll

A frozen roll made from milk, sugar, flour, egg, vanilla, almond, whipped cream, green coloring, candied cherries, and a whipped cream center.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Sultana Roll

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Add sugar.

  3. Add flour mixed with a little water.

  4. Add the beaten egg.

  5. Stir.

  6. Cook for 20 minutes.

  7. Add a pinch of salt.

  8. Strain the mixture.

  9. Cool the mixture.

  10. Add vanilla extract.

  11. Add almond extract.

  12. Fold in the whipped cream.

  13. Color with green food coloring.

Freeze and mold

  1. Freeze the mixture.

  2. Turn the frozen mixture into a mold.

  3. Sprinkle with candied cherries.

  4. Whip 1 pint of cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until stiff.

  5. Pack the whipped cream into the center of the mold.

  6. Pack in ice and salt.

  7. Let it stand for 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. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing richness and body once cooked and frozen.
Egg
Thickens the custard as it cooks and adds richness and structure to the frozen mixture.
Flour
Stabilizes the custard by thickening it, helping it hold together during cooking and freezing.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the texture of the frozen mixture, keeping it from freezing too hard.
Whipped cream
Adds air and fat, giving the frozen dessert a light, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Cook the custard for the full 20 minutes. Cooking the milk, flour and egg mixture thickens it properly. If it is undercooked, the egg and flour will not set the custard, and the frozen dessert may be thin or grainy.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, flour, egg, vanilla, cream):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Hazelnutfits less well
  4. Pistachiofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, flour, egg, vanilla, cream. 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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