Name: Baked Sweet Potato
Ingredients: 6 sweet potatoes, grated raw; 1 tablespoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon black pepper; 1 teaspoon allspice; ½ cup sugar; ¼ cup lard; ¼ cup butter; 2 raw eggs; 1 cup milk or cream

Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Sweet Potato

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grate the sweet potatoes and place them in a mixing bowl.

Mix and bake

Add cinnamon, black pepper, allspice, sugar, lard, butter, eggs, and milk or cream.
Mix all ingredients until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set and golden on top.

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.

Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Sweet potato + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together539 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Sweet potato + allspicetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together105 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet potatoes: Form the bulk of the casserole and provide starch and body as they cook.
Eggs: Set the mixture into a firm, sliceable custard as they cook.
Milk or cream: Adds moisture and richness, keeping the casserole tender as it bakes.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Lard: Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavour.
Butter: Adds fat and flavour, contributing richness and aroma.

Swap the sweet potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, pepper, allspice, sugar, butter, egg, milk):

Capsicumfits about as well
Sweet potatothe original
Mustardfits about as well
Carrotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, pepper, allspice, sugar, butter, egg, milk. 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.