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Dessert

Sultana Roll

A custard roll with sultanas and sweetened whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sultana Roll

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine milk, sugar, flour, egg, and salt in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

  3. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

  4. Add heavy cream and vanilla extract.

  5. If desired, add coloring paste.

  6. Freeze the mixture.

Assemble and pack

  1. Line a mold with a 1‑inch layer of the custard.

  2. Fill the hollow with sweetened whipped cream mixed with soaked sultana raisins.

  3. Pack the mold in ice and salt, and let it stand for 4 hours before serving.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Vanilla + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together806 recipes

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

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, giving it body once cooked and frozen.
Egg
Thickens the custard as it cooks and adds richness to the frozen texture.
Flour
Helps stabilise the cooked custard so it holds together rather than separating.
Heavy cream
Adds fat that makes the frozen custard smooth and creamy rather than icy.
Sultana raisins
Add chewy sweetness and fruitiness, softened by soaking in brandy.

The step that matters

Cook the custard gently while stirring. Egg and flour thicken the mixture only when heated gently and stirred; too much heat or too little stirring can scramble the egg or leave lumps, giving a grainy custard after freezing.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Raisinthe original
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Strawberryfits about as well
  4. Apricotfits about as well

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