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Baked Sweet Plantains in Wine

Baked sweet plantains simmered in sherry wine with brown sugar and cinnamon.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Baked Sweet Plantains in Wine

Oven350F
Time30 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and fry

  1. Remove the peel from the plantains and slice them lengthwise in half.

  2. In a large sauté pan, heat the oil over medium heat and add the plantains.

  3. Cook the plantains until lightly browned on each side.

Bake

  1. Place the plantains in a large baking dish and sprinkle brown sugar over them.

  2. Add ground cinnamon and pour sherry wine over the plantains.

  3. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the plantains take on a reddish hue.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

199Calories
0 gProtein
14 gFat
16 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Plantainnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Olive + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,501 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Olive + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,415 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).

  4. Cinnamon + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Cinnamon + sherrytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together649 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Plantains
Starchy base that softens and turns sweet as it cooks and bakes.
Olive oil
Conducts heat in the pan and helps the plantain surfaces brown.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface caramelize and darken in the oven.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and aroma and moistens the plantains as they bake.

The step that matters

Browning the plantains in the pan. Searing the cut sides over medium heat develops browned flavour through the Maillard reaction. Pale, underbrowned plantains bake up soft but bland, and the sugar then has less surface to caramelize.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, sugar, sherry, wine):

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Rosemaryfits less well
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, sugar, sherry, wine. 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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