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Dessert

Sweet Potato Pie

A baked pie with sweet potato filling, milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla or cinnamon, ginger, and a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Sweet Potato Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Boil, skin, and mash the sweet potatoes until smooth.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the mashed sweet potatoes, milk, beaten eggs, sugar, vanilla (or cinnamon), and ginger. Mix well until fully combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a deep pie crust.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

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

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

  2. Sweet potato + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together306 recipes

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

  3. Sweet potato + vanillatop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together189 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Vanilla + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,110 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Sweet potatoes
Provide the bulk and body of the filling, giving it a smooth, soft texture.
Eggs
Set when baked, giving the mashed filling structure so it firms into a sliceable custard.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, helping the filling stay creamy as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown lightly at the edges during baking.

The step that matters

Mash the sweet potatoes until smooth. Any lumps left in the sweet potato will remain in the baked pie, so the filling will feel grainy instead of silky. Thorough mashing gives an even texture throughout.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sweet potato, milk, egg, sugar, vanilla. 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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