Why it works: Sweet potato and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 105 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells fruity, sweet. The science ↓
Sweet Potato Pudding
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.
Prepare the sweet potatoes
Boil the sweet potatoes until done, then mash them through a sieve.
Mix and bake
In a large bowl, mix the mashed sweet potatoes with sugar, butter, eggs, salt, allspice, buttermilk, and baking soda until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set and golden.
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.
-
Sweet potato + allspicetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together105 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
-
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Sweet potato + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,151 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet potatoes
- Provide the starchy bulk and body of the pudding.
- Eggs
- Set the mixture into a custard-like structure as they bake.
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the buttermilk's acidity to lift and lighten the batter.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender, smooth texture.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Pulling the pudding too early leaves the egg-thickened mixture runny in the center. Baking until just set lets the eggs firm into a sliceable custard without curdling or drying out.
Swap the allspice
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sweet potato, sugar, butter, egg, buttermilk):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerfits about as well
- Allspicethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sweet potato, sugar, butter, egg, buttermilk. 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.
More sweet potato pudding recipes
You might also like
Deep-Fried Potato Balls119 recipes
Orange Potato Bread80 recipes
Buttermilk Pie12 recipes
Sweet Corn Pudding8 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.