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Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Baked sweet potato mash with orange zest, milk, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sweet potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,015 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Boil and mash

  1. Boil a half dozen peeled sweet potatoes until soft.

  2. Mash them, and add salt, pepper, orange juice and grated rind of an orange, and enough milk to make a soft mixture like mashed white potatoes.

Bake

  1. Bake in a well-buttered pudding dish until light-brown.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

167Calories
4 gProtein
0 gFat
38 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog]. 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. Sweet potato + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,015 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 main body and natural sweetness of the dish.
Milk (in the method)
Adds moisture so the mash becomes soft and spoonable.
Orange (in the method)
Adds acidity and citrus aroma that brighten the sweet flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Cooked sweet potato starch absorbs liquid as it sits, so adding milk gradually until the mash is soft but not runny gives a better texture. Too much milk makes the mash watery and slows browning in the oven.

“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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