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Dessert

Sweet Potato Custard

A baked custard made with sweet potatoes, sugar, eggs, milk, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweet Potato Custard

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.

Make the custard

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the mashed sweet potatoes, sugar, egg yolks, brandy (if using), milk, butter, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

  3. Mix until smooth and pour into a baking dish.

Bake and top

  1. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set.

  2. While baking, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Spread the beaten egg whites over the custard once baked.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Sweet potato + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together539 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sweet potato + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together414 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet potatoes
Provide the body, moisture and sweet flavour of the custard.
Egg yolks
Set the custard as they heat, giving it a firm, smooth structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, keeping the custard soft after setting.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the texture of the set custard.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they form a light, airy topping over the custard.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Egg proteins coagulate as the custard heats. Pulling it too early leaves a runny centre, while overbaking makes it grainy and watery.

“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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