Why it works: Sweet potato and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,151 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Candied Sweet Potatoes
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
Peel the sweet potatoes and boil until half done.
Cut the potatoes into lengthwise slices and lay them in a shallow greased pan.
Bake and serve
Pour over the syrup made from the crushed maple sugar, boiling water, and fat.
Place in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) and baste frequently with syrup until the potatoes are done and well candied.
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.
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Sweet potato + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,151 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 body that softens during boiling and baking and soaks up the syrup.
- Crushed maple sugar
- Sweetens the dish and caramelizes into a glossy, candied coating as it bakes.
- Fat
- Adds richness and helps the syrup coat the potatoes and brown evenly.
The step that matters
Basting with syrup in the oven. Repeated basting keeps the surface moist so the sugar syrup thickens and caramelizes gradually instead of burning or drying out. Stopping early leaves the coating thin and sticky rather than well candied.
“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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