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Dessert

Sweet Potato Pie

A sweet potato pie with a pastry crust and a custard-like filling of mashed sweet potatoes, eggs, milk, sugar, butter, vinegar, lemon extract, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the peeled sweet potatoes.

  2. Mash the sweet potatoes finely.

  3. Add the beaten eggs.

  4. Add the milk carefully to prevent lumping.

  5. Sweeten to taste.

  6. Add vanilla.

  7. Add the melted butter.

  8. Stir all together.

  9. Cook until thick.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pan with fresh paste.

  2. Fill it.

  3. Cover with strips of paste.

  4. Bake in a quick oven.

  5. Fill a freshly baked crust.

  6. Cover with the beaten whites of the eggs.

  7. Brown.

  8. Bake in paste-lined pans.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1009Calories
32 gProtein
26 gFat
161 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Waternot 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.

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + sweet potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together627 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Lemon + sweet potatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together314 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Sweet potatoes
Provide the bulk and body of the pie filling once mashed.
Eggs
Help the filling set and thicken when cooked.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to the smooth custard-like filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the filling its browned, caramelized flavor.
Flour
Thickens the filling so it holds its shape when cooked.

The step that matters

Cook until thick. Milk and egg mixtures can scorch or curdle if overheated, and under-cooking leaves the filling runny. Stirring gently while it cooks and stopping once it coats a spoon gives a smooth, set filling.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, flour, butter, vinegar, sweet potato, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, flour, butter, vinegar, sweet potato, egg. 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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