Why it works: Yam and cinnamon share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Camotes Enmielados
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Place whole or thickly-sliced yams in a large baking dish.
Bake
Place piloncilo cone atop the yams, then add water and cinnamon.
Cover dish, and bake for about 60 minutes, basting the yams with the now sweetened cooking liquid as needed.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 5 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Potato | 1 medium (173g) baked | 161 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Cinnamon | 1 tsp ground (2.6g) | 6 |
| Yam | not in our table | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Yam + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together41 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Yam + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together73 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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
- Yam or sweet potato
- Forms the tender, starchy body of the dish once baked.
- Piloncilo
- Dissolves into the cooking liquid, sweetening the yams and adding deep caramel flavor.
- Cinnamon sticks
- Infuse the cooking liquid with warm, aromatic spice.
The step that matters
Basting with the cooking liquid. Keeping the yams coated in the sweetened liquid, as the record directs, helps them stay moist and absorb flavor. Covering the dish traps steam, so the yams cook through evenly while the liquid thickens into a syrup.
Swap the yam
The recipe marks yam as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon):
- Yamthe original
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Arrowrootfits less well
- Beetrootfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon. 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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