Name: Sweet Potato Pudding
Ingredients: one pound of mashed potatoes; one half pound of butter; one half pound of sugar; six eggs; one tea-cupful of cream

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Sweet Potato Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Weigh one pound of mashed potatoes, one half pound of butter, six eggs, one tea-cupful of cream, one half pound of sugar; spice and wine to taste. Serve with sauce. — Miss Hawes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

441Calories

11 gProtein

22 gFat

51 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49

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

By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo. 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. See the original page.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Potato + teatop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together136 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, tea, cream):

Potatothe original
Asparagusfits about as well
Capsicumfits less well
Spinachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, tea, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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Sweet Potato Pudding