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Dessert

Sultana Roll and Claret Sauce

A dessert roll of pistachio ice cream filled with sultana raisins, served with a claret sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pistachio and raisin share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 63 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Sultana Roll and Claret Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the raisins

  1. Boil sultana raisins for 5 minutes.

  2. Soak the boiled raisins in brandy for several hours.

  3. Drain the raisins before using.

Assemble the roll

  1. Line a one-pound baking powder can with pistachio ice cream.

  2. Sprinkle the drained raisins inside the can.

  3. Fill the center with sweetened and flavored whipped cream.

  4. Cover the top with more pistachio ice cream.

  5. Pack the can in ice and salt for 2 hours before serving.

Make the claret sauce

  1. Boil sugar and water until thick syrup forms.

  2. Let the syrup cool slightly.

  3. Add claret to the syrup.

  4. Serve the claret sauce very cold over the sultana roll.

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. Pistachio + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together63 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Pistachio + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together634 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Sultana raisins
Soaked in brandy, they add chewy texture and concentrated fruit flavor to the filling.
Whipped cream
Adds a light, airy texture and moisture to the center of the frozen roll.
Pistachio ice cream
Forms the frozen outer shell and provides the main flavor and creamy body.
Sugar
Dissolves in water to make a syrup that sweetens and thickens the claret sauce.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavor to the syrup, making the sauce tangy and aromatic.

The step that matters

Packing the can in ice and salt. Salt lowers the melting point of the ice, so the mixture gets colder than ice alone. This keeps the ice cream firm while the roll sets; without enough cold, it softens and loses its shape.

Swap the pistachio

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, raisin, brandy, sugar):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiothe original
  4. Brazil nutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, raisin, brandy, sugar. 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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